UN Environment at EUROCLIMA seminar in Costa Rica

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21-23 September 2016 -Two events of the EU’s climate change cooperation with Latin America took place in San José, Costa Rica. The EUROCLIMA+ Seminar prepared the upcoming cooperation programme between the two continents to meet the challenges of climate change and environmental sustainability. Meanwhile the 4th EUROCLIMA Seminar analysed the results of the programme that started in 2010.

As one of the implementing agencies, UN Environment presented its activities to national focal points, the European Commission and the rest of partners.

UN Environment’s activities in EUROCLIMA are divided in three results:

·Result 1: To strengthen high level climate policy dialogue

·Result 2: To facilitate climate related debate in national Parliaments and in Parlatino

·Result 3: To increase public awareness about climate change

Under thefirst result, three technical studies on topics of priority for EUROCLIMA countries are developing. UN Enviroment presented one of them, a draft study on electric mobility that addresses the importance of the transport sector in achieving the NDCs in the region, as well as a road map with a view of providing recommendations for action to country decision-makers.

In addition, three policy analyses on the implications, opportunities and challenges of the implementation of the recent Paris Agreement for the region were presented during the seminars.

Regarding climate policy dialogue, the last event was the Meeting of the High-Level Experts of the Twentieth Meeting of the Forum of Ministers of Environment of Latin America and the Caribbean, which was held from 28 to 29 March 2016 in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia.

Also, three regional workshops of climate change negotiators in conjunction with the UNFCCC Secretariat have been held. The last one took place in Quitoon November 5^th, 2015 and the next is currently being organized, it will take place in Buenos Aires on October 12^thand 13^th, 2016.

Finally, an interactive web-basedCommunity of Practice on climate policy, legislation on climate change and jurisdiction has been developed.

Regarding thesecond result,UN Environment presented the activities currently taking place in Peru, Costa Rica and Chile for the development of national regulations.

The overall goal of the activity in Peru is to perform a legal analysis to develop a Measurement, Report and Verification system (MRV) for accounting mitigation actions of the private sector as part of Peru´s National Determined Contributions (NDCs) for complying with the Paris Agreement.

In Costa Rica, the core action is to create a draft text to introduce a GHG emission´s levy to be burdened to the transport sector in the country.

Finally, the main goal in Chile is to define the contents for a specific regulation to foster adaptation measures both in municipal and regional areas within Chile.

The objective of thethird resultis to increase capacity and understanding among opinion leaders in the Latin America & Caribbean region. To achieve it, UN Environment continues supporting a platform named ConexionCOP (www.conexioncop.com) that is having a sound impact in the region.

For more information: http://www.pnuma.org/