From October 29to30th, the session hosted by ECLAC and the Mexican government through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with some of the most important Latin American organizations with previous work on Climate Change.

The main objective of the session was to know the concerns of the south NGOs about the general dialogue lines to be presented in the next COP16 and how the Secretariat and the Mexican government can deal or involve it in the official processes.

In the first session only we, the Latin NGOs, talk about the risks about the main climate regional issues related with local necessities; the vulnerable groups, REDD+ and the AOSIS proposal about the “1.5 review”.

About the vulnerable groups, the GYAN contribution was to include youth as special agents of rights in the same floor with the native people and the women.

With REDD+ our proposal was the review of the positive incentives, the monitoring process. The discussion about themes like historic debt or national indicators was not easy deal but the themes are still on table.

Finally, the positions about AOSIS were divided. For some, the “1.5 review” is the proposal that the Latin NGOs should support but for others, the Cochabamba proposal to demand the “1 grade” is the most appropriated.

The second day session was a Plenary with the ECLAC ministry Alicia Bárcenas, the ministry of Foreign Affairs from Mexico Patricia Espinosa and the UNFCCC Secretariat Horacio Peluffo and all the NGOs invited.

The discussion was related to the NGOs declaration, the presentation of the UNFCCC president and some logistic and thematic questions about COP16.

The conclusion was to involve the most vulnerable sectors in the Climate Change consequences (native people, youth and women), to review the monitoring process of REDD+ and to articulate the Cochabamba and the AOSIS proposal and to include an entire process with the participation with NGOs for the next COP17 in South Africa.

Written by: Mariana González