After more than a decade, the United Nations’ annual climate change negotiations return to Latin America in November. In the Brazilian city of Belém, governments, civil society, businesses and other actors will meet for two weeks at COP30 to discuss climate plans and pledges, financing, the energy transition and forest protection, among other issues.
The last time the region hosted the conference was in 2014, in Lima, Peru. That was the year before the signing of the Paris Agreement, the landmark climate treaty that seeks to limit temperature rise this century to 2C, preferably 1.5C, above pre-industrial levels. Buenos Aires, Argentina (1998 and 2004) and Cancún, Mexico (2010) have also hosted the conference. Santiago, Chile, was also due to host it in 2019, but it was moved to Spain due to social unrest.
The countries of the region have been actively involved in climate negotiations since the early 1990s. Although they have mostly done so in a fragmented manner, there are signs of a more united front ahead of the Belém summit: nations seem to agree that, on the one hand, they are among the most vulnerable to climate change and, on the other, they have large carbon sinks and great potential for renewable energy.
Several countries have also played a significant role at key moments in the negotiations, such as the creation of the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement, according to experts consulted by Dialogue Earth. At COP30, they argue, there will now be a new opportunity to demonstrate that leadership and reaffirm the importance of multilateralism amid global tensions.
“It’s a good time to host the COP in the region. We have very good things to show the world. There are no new coal projects, we are making rapid progress in renewable energy, we can present solutions and work for multilateralism,” says Natalie Unterstell, president of Talanoa, a Brazilian climate think-tank. “We are ready to get started.”
Latin America at COP climate negotiations
In most international environmental negotiations, from biodiversity to mercury, the region participates as a single bloc, the Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC). But on climate change, countries have always distanced themselves from each other, according to Jimena Nieto Carrasco, who was part of the Colombian delegation during the Paris Agreement negotiations in 2015.
“You haven’t been able to talk about ‘the region’, when it comes to climate change issues, for more than 20 years. We soon realised that it was not possible to reach consensus among such different countries, from giants like Brazil to small island states to intermediate countries like Colombia. It makes no sense to try because we are not going to reach agreement on most issues,” she adds.
Instead, on climate change, countries negotiate individually and in various blocs that have been formed and disbanded over the years. Most nations are part of multiple such groupings, based around shared interests and positions with their fellow members.
All countries in the region have long been part of the Group of 77 and China, a coalition of developing nations at the UN, which has consistently demanded that developed countries drastically reduce their greenhouse gas emissions first.
Elsewhere, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama and Peru are part of the Independent Association of Latin America and the Caribbean (AILAC); Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay and Uruguay are members of the SUR Group, with Brazil also coordinating its positions with South Africa, India and China as part of the BASIC Group; and 16 island countries in the region are part of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), which brings together a total of 39 countries globally.
Other groups include: the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), created by Venezuela in 2004 and including Bolivia, Cuba and Nicaragua, but now less active; the Coalition for Rainforest Nations (CfRN), of which 18 countries in the region are part; and the Like-Minded Developing Countries (LMDC), with 24 countries globally, including Bolivia, Venezuela and El Salvador, among others.
“Latin America has not been able to overcome its fragmentation, which means that it has a divided and poorly coordinated voice in negotiations,” says Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, global leader of climate and energy at the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), a former environment minister of Peru, and president of COP20. “Despite this diversity, the region has contributed greatly to the global climate debate.”
Key moments and regional leaders
Climate change negotiations under the UN formally began in Latin America, with the Earth Summit of 1992 hosted in Rio de Janeiro. There, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was opened for signature, identifying climate change as an urgent global problem. The first COP took place in 1995 and at the 1997 conference, countries agreed to the Kyoto Protocol, a climate agreement that set binding targets for industrialised countries to reduce their emissions. Argentine diplomat Raúl Estrada-Oyuela chaired the negotiations, while Brazil strongly supported the agreement’s distinction between developed and developing countries.
In their book A Fragmented Continent: Latin America and Global Climate Change Policy, researchers Guy Edwards and J Timmons Roberts describe Kyoto as a success for the region, as it did not have to make any commitments to reduce emissions. “Outside Brazil, most other Latin American countries barely made their voices heard in Rio or Kyoto,” they said.
The protocol came into force in 2005. That year, Costa Rica, together with Papua New Guinea, proposed a mechanism to reduce emissions from deforestation that would later become REDD+, which today finances actions to protect forests. Earlier versions of the mechanism were criticised by Brazil, which had feared losing control over its territory, Edwards and Roberts said.
Despite not having to make commitments under Kyoto, Peru offered in 2008 to reduce emissions in its forestry sector in exchange for new measures by developed countries. It was joined by Costa Rica, with a goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2021 (a target it ultimately missed); by Mexico, with a goal of reducing its emissions by 50% by 2050; and by Brazil, with a goal of reducing deforestation by 70% by 2017 (a goal which was also missed amid challenges in the latter part of the decade).
In 2009, countries were supposed to reach a new climate agreement. However, differences prevented them from moving forward. This raised questions about the negotiations and put pressure on Mexico as the host of the next summit. However, Patricia Espinosa, president of COP16, and Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UNFCCC, were able to reactivate the process.
“The region has made significant contributions to the negotiation process,” says Alejandra López Carbajal, director of climate diplomacy at the NGO Transforma. “I would highlight complicated presidencies, such as COP16. The UN system was being questioned, as was multilateralism. But Mexico’s presidency played an important role in restoring confidence.”
AILAC, a bloc described by Edwards and Roberts as the “third way” due to its role in building bridges between developed and developing countries, was launched in 2012. Then, in 2014, COP20 took place in Lima under Peru’s presidency. That meeting paved the way for the subsequent Paris Agreement, with the presentation of numerous climate commitments.
Pulgar-Vidal and Figueres are often described as two of the “architects of the Paris Agreement” for their diplomatic skills and optimism. At the group level, AILAC also played a prominent role in achieving the agreement, according to an analysis by Edwards, who points to its efforts to build bridges and raise countries’ ambition.
The road to COP30
In August, representatives from environmental agencies in 22 Latin American countries participated in a meeting in Mexico to strengthen cooperation in the region ahead of COP30. “In the face of the multiple crises we are facing, it is more important than ever to discuss our common challenges,” said Mexico’s environment minister Alicia Bárcena at the conference’s opening.
The meeting resulted in a position paper from the region for COP30. The countries found common ground in moving forward with a transition “that leaves behind” fossil fuels, accelerating climate action and prioritising adaptation. They also highlighted the urgency of increasing financing and committed to conserving and protecting forests.
The COP has to show that even without political will, the economy is maturing and is already capable of providing the necessary impetusManuel Pulgar-Vidal, global leader of climate and energy at the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and former environment minister of Peru
“It was a positive surprise,” says López Carbajal. “They met in a forum that did not exist before and produced a good statement that speaks of ambition. There is genuine interest in working together. Mexico’s leadership [as host] brings a different atmosphere of cooperation to the region.”
The specialists consulted expect Latin America to be able to take advantage of these commonalities to achieve a more unified front at COP30. They also expect Brazil’s presidency to promote issues particularly relevant to the region through ongoing initiatives such as the Tropical Forest Forever Fund (TFFF) for forest protection.
Pulgar-Vidal believes Brazil will be successful at COP30. “This year’s COP will have many fronts; there is no single goal to achieve. But success will come from a focus on implementation. We need the end result to be disruptive. The COP has to show that even without political will, the economy is maturing and is already capable of providing the necessary impetus,” he concludes.
