To: Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) · Cc: Danielle Magalhaes, Global Climate Action Team Lead, UN Climate Change
An appeal to the UNFCCC & State parties at COP27
The climate crisis is among the most critical and complex issues our planet and its people face. Human rights and climate action are increasingly indivisible and the need to transition to cleaner energies has never been more urgent. Yet this transition will be set up to fail if it focuses solely on being fast, and not on also being just.
We represent a wide range of movements and organizations, working for climate justice, human rights, labour rights, and corporate accountability. The profit driven extractive model which has underpinned the global energy model has not provided the economic benefits or development promised to many countries, and has entrenched existing inequalities, including around access to and ownership of energy, and gender inequality. It must be transformed. COP27 offers a defining moment to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels and set the compass resolutely towards the energy transition. Meeting this immense challenge requires swift and coordinated global action, as well as redirection of private and public investments to renewable energy projects.
Disregarding the rights of local communities and Indigenous populations in the race to a decarbonized economy by 2050, in particular those impacted by the boom in the extraction of the minerals needed for the transition, and by land-intensive renewable energy projects, is short-sighted. It will result in numerous human rights violations and a failure of the responsibility of governments to protect human rights as established by the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. It is already causing widespread abuse of land, water, and Indigenous Peoples' rights: 495 allegations of human rights abuses were tracked so far in relation to transition minerals mining since 2010. But it will also continue to fuel opposition, conflict, and result in delays to both projects and achieving our global climate and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) targets. Such conflict has already resulted in at least 369 attacks on human rights, labour and environmental defenders around the world since 2015, including 98 killings, related to renewable energy projects, and 148 attacks, among them 13 killings, related to transition minerals mining.
The limits of non-legislative, market-based approaches to improve corporate respect for human rights are also clear: 78% of 1000 most influential companies, across 68 countries and 26 industries, scored zero on all indicators measuring their voluntary steps towards human rights due diligence. Mandatory human rights due diligence is necessary to close the accountability gap.
For real progress to be made at COP27, world leaders need to actively promote responsible renewable energy by:
Recognizing that human rights are central to the climate response. The profit driven extractive model has entrenched and exacerbated inequality, and contributed to driving conflict, environmental damage, attacks on communities and defenders, while simultaneously playing a significant role in emissions. An energy transition based on this model will fail. Governments must position human rights at the core of their climate plans for it to be successful and sustainable long term. This means that alongside commitments to expand renewable energy generation, Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) need to include specific provisions to ensure that land rights, especially women’s land rights, are protected, Indigenous Peoples’ Rights, rooted in respect for their right to self-determination, are upheld, and project benefits are equitably shared with marginalized and directly impacted communities;
Adopting new ambitious green policy and regulatory frameworks that protect workers, local communities and Indigenous Peoples while directing foreign and domestic investment flows into
responsible renewable energy infrastructure: specific consideration should be given to upholding Indigenous Peoples’ right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) as well as the individual and collective rights of customary land rights holders; and to the safety of human rights, labour and environmental defenders;
Legislating to put an end to the most egregious corporate abuses through the introduction of gender responsive mandatory human rights, environmental and climate due diligence;
Supporting an equitable energy transition by ensuring that renewable energy development results in equal access to clean, reliable, and affordable energy for their populations, including for female headed households;
Adopting policies to prioritise reduced energy and material demands by wealthier countries as well as increased efficiency, responsible product design and the recycling of minerals to minimise the environmental and human impacts of mining activities and move away from the extraction-to exhaustion model of production.
In addition, we support the asks in the 2021 Declaration on Mining and the Energy Transition, including centering the human rights of Indigenous Peoples, frontline communities, and workers throughout the renewable energy value chain.
It is time to rethink how the energy transition can be used to advance our human rights agenda. A climate agenda arising from neoliberal reforms that maintain existing industrial models is opening doors to unsustainable investments and continues to see nature merely as an object of consumption or to be exploited as an economic resource. It expects communities that contributed the least to the climate crisis to bear the brunt of the transition, without benefiting from it and without being able to shape it. As such, it cannot meet the challenge of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to meet the Paris climate commitments – it will continue to be resisted, delayed, and could ultimately backfire.
Signed:
Business & Human Rights Resource Centre & Indigenous Peoples’ Rights International (IPRI)
11.11.11
350.org
ACCA
ACCION CONTRA EL HAMBRE
AIPNEE
AJI
ALTSEAN-Burma
AMDV
ANAFAE
ASONOG
Above Ground
Accountability Counsel
African Resources Watch (AFREWATCH)
Akad Cultural Institute
Amazon Watch
Amnesty International
Andrew Lees Trust (ALT UK)
Anti-Slavery International
AsM Law Office
Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)
Asociación de Investigación y Especialización sobre Temas Iberoameicanos
Association pour l'Integration et le Developpement Durable au Burundi, AIDB (Indigenous Forum in consultative ststatus with the UN ECOSOC)
Associação indígena de Artistas e artesãos de Alter do Chão - Kuximawara Bangladesh Indigenous Youth Forum
BankTrack
Batani Foundation
Both ENDS
Broederlijk Delen
CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
COMPPART Foundation for Justice and Peacebuilding
Canadian Health Assoc for Sustainability & Equity (CHASE)
Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability
Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD)
Center for Development Programs in the Cordillera
Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO)
Centre for Social Innovation (ZSI)
Centro Hondureño de Promocion Para el Desarrollo Comunitario (Cehprodec) Centro de Investigación y Educación Popular (CINEP/PPP)
Centro de Promoción para el Desarrollo Comunal INTI
Chandpur Shwapna Chua Foundation
Cidse
Coalition for Wetlands and Forests
Comision Jurídica para Los Autodesarrollos de Los Primeros Andinos Originarios (CAPAJ) Community Care for the Environment in Timika Papua
Community Empowerment and Social Justice Network (CEMSOJ)
Congrès Mondial Amazigh
Cordillera Peoples Alliance
Corporación de Apoyo a Comunidades Populares Codacop
Council of Shor People Olders
Crane Institute for Sustainability
Cultural Survival
DKA Austria
Derechos Humanos y Medio Ambiente - DHUMA Puno
Development Alternatives
Development Education Community Project
Diaguita Cacicazgotacquia Indigenous community
Diálogo y Movimiento, A.C.
Due Process of Law Foundation
EarthRights International
Earthjustice
Earthworks
Ebiil Society, Palau
El Pueblo Indígena Bubi de la Isla de Bioko (EPIBIB)
Environmental Justice Foundation
Environmental Rights Foundation
European Coalition for Corporate Justice
Extinction Rebellion Zurich
FIAN
FIAN Belgium
FIAN Germany
FIDH (International Federation of Human Rights)
FOCUS DROITS ET ACCES
FTQ-Construction
Fastenaktion
Federación por la Autodeterminación de los pueblos indígenas (FAPI) First Peoples Worldwide
Fondation du Docip
Forest Peoples Programme
Forum Nobis PLLC
Friday For Future DRC
Friday For Future Goma
Fridays For Future Fukuoka
Fridays For Future India
Fridays For Future Indonesia
Fridays For Future Sierra Leone
Fridays For Future U.S.
Friends of the Attawapiskat River
Friends of the Earth Canada
Fulda university
Fundación Alboan
Fundación Quantum
Fédération des Organisations Autochtones de Guyane française - F.O.A.G
Generation Enough
Geneva Center for Business and Human Rights (GCBHR)
Global Citizen
Global Legal Action Network
Global Witness
Gobernadora Pluricultural del Estado de México, República Mexicana
Grand(m)others Act to Save the Planet - GASP
Grassroot
Help Guillermo Win
House On Fire Germany
Human Rights Watch
IPACC Indigenous People African Coordination Committee
Inclusive Development International
Indigenous Concerns Resource Center
Indigenous Environmental Network
Indigenous First Nation Advocacy South Africa (IFNASA)
Indigenous Peoples Forum, Odisha
Indigenous Peoples Global Forum for Sustainable Development, IPGFforSD (International Indigenous Platform) Indigenous Rights Advocacy Centre (IRAC)
Indigenous Women Legal Awareness Group (INWOLAG)
Indigenous Women and Girls Initiative
Indigenous knowledge and Peoples Networks, SWBC Nepal
Inter Pares
International Indigenous Women's Forum (FIMI)
International Land Coalition
International Land Coalition - Latin America and the Caribbean
International Rivers
International Service for Human Rights
International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)
Kabataang Pulileño
Klimastreik
Knowledge Industry Ltd
Korea Transnational Corporations Watch (KTNC Watch)
Land is Life
Lawyers for Human Rights
Lawyers’ Association for Human Rights of Nepalese Indigenous Peoples (LAHURNIP) Lelewal Foundation
London Mining Network
Malach Consulting
Maleya Foundation
Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
Micronesia Conservation Trust (MCT)
Milieudefensie - Friends of the Earth Netherlands
MiningWatch Canada
NGO Civil Expertise Qazaqstan
Narasha Community Development Group
Natural Resource Governance Institute – NRGI
Nepal Kirat Kulung Bhasa Sanskriti Utthan Sangh
New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance, Inc.
Observatoire d'Etudes et d'Appui à la Responsabilité Sociale et Environnementale - OEARSE
Observatorio Ciudadano Chile
Osnabrück University
Oxfam International
PASTORAL SOCIAL DIÓCESIS DE QUIBDÓ
Pan African Human Rights Defenders Network (AfricanDefenders)
Panaghiusa Philippine Network to Uphold Indigenous Peoples Rights
Peace Brigades International - UK Section
Philippine Task Force for Indigenous Peoples Rights
Plant Based Treaty
Project HEARD
Project on Organizing, Development, Education, and Research (PODER)
Protection International
Publiez Ce Que Vous Payez (PCQVP) - Mali
Publish What You Pay (PWYP)
Publish What You Pay - US
RED ONG´s AMÉRICA LATINA
RMIB-LAC
Radyo Sagada 104.7fm
Red Nacional de Organismos Civiles de Derechos Humanos "Todos los Derechos para Todas y Todos" (Red TDT de México)
Renovate Switzerland
Rights & Accountability in Development (RAID)
Rights CoLab
Rivers without Boundaries International Coalition (RwB)
Réseau des Populations Autochtones et Locales de Centrafrique (REPALCA)
SAP-AU Internationale, France
SETEM Catalunya
Sierra Leone Land Alliance
SIRGE Coalition
Sisters of Mercy of the Americas Justice Team
Society for Threatened Peoples (Switzerland)
South Vihar Welfare Society for Tribal
Southern Defenders
Stand.earth
Structural Analysis of Cultural Systems (S.A.C.S.)
Sundargargh Adivasi Manch, Odisha, India
Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC)
Swedwatch
Tebtebba
The Grail and UFER-United for Equity and Ending Racism
The International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA)
Tirap Youth Trust
Trócaire
Unissons-nous pour la Promotion des Batwa (UNIPROBA)
VIVAT International
War on Want
Western Mining Action Network - Indigenous Caucus
Women Working Worldwide
Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN)
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom - WILPF Finland
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom - WILPF Togo
Working Group Amazonia Is Life, P4F
World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA)
Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines / Fridays For Future Philippines
Youth Climate Save Canada
Zambia Climate Change Network (ZCCN
Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA)
