Responding and Adapting to Climate Change in the European Union and in Latin America and the Caribbean: Fostering Cooperation at the Interregional Level

Organising partners: UNU-CRIS in partnership with the EU-LAC Foundation, Université libre de Bruxelles and the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro

Organisers: Frank Mattheis, Andrea Ribeiro Hoffmann and Bruno Theodoro Luciano

This policy dialogue discusses cooperation between Latin America and the Carribean (LAC) and the European Union (EU) in finding common solutions to environmental and climate change problems. Taking place just ahead of COP29 in Baku, this event brings together practitioners and experts from both continents to identify the main challenges and pave the way for interregional responses to the climate crisis.

The 2023 high-level EU-CELAC Summit made climate change a priority for EU-LAC cooperation. However, policymaking and implementation have so far fallen short of expectations. In LAC, traditional regional organizations have lost dynamism, and regional initiatives, such as the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization, the Escazú Agreement and the Amazon Fund, provide innovative platforms to address climate urgencies, but have yet to fully exploit links with the EU. On the European side, the Green Deal and the Global Gateway have mechanisms to work with LAC on climate change, but finding a common language on vulnerabilities, adaptation and financing modalities remains contentious.

The road to COP 30 in Belém, in the middle of the Amazon Forest, provides the EU and LAC with an opportunity to intensify their interactions. In this spirit, this policy dialogue brings together stakeholders from various sectors and governance levels – subnational, national and supranational – to contribute to a better understanding of each other’s perceptions and advance a common agenda.

Preliminary Programme

7 November 2024

Opening Session

Keynote Speech

Panel 1: New regional formats in EU-LAC relations: Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization, Escazú Agreement, and the Amazon Fund

Panel 2: Implementing the EU Green Deal: European and LAC perceptions

Panel 3: Prevention and Response to the climate crisis and subnational actors: experiences from Europe and LAC

8 November 2024

Panel 4: Global Gateway in Latin America and the Caribbean and the prevention and response to climate change crises

Panel 5: COP 30 Belem: what is the potential for EU-LAC cooperation in climate governance?

Panel 6: Closing Session

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