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Statement from Mary Robinson on the Paris Agreement

12/12/2015

This statement was issued on the Mary Robinson Foundation - Climate Justice website. The Mary Robinson Centre and the Mary Robinson Foundation are not affiliated.

The unprecedented call for climate justice has echoed from all corners of the world and was brought inside the walls of the negotiating rooms at COP21 in Paris. We see it reflected in the pages of the Paris Agreement – even if the means to achieve it will have to come in the coming years.

Climate change is already affecting us all and the Paris Agreement adopted tonight provides the opportunity to transform our way of life to one that is fairer and more sustainable. It establishes the need to keep global temperature rise below 2oC and closer to 1.5oC. It also compels countries to act urgently to increase the capacity of communities to cope with climate change and to uphold human dignity in the face of unmanageable climate impacts.

I am pleased that the agreement is more people centred than its parent Convention, building on our growing understanding of climate change as a social, economic and environmental issue. While falling short of adopting a rights based approach to the implementation of the provisions of the agreement, the Paris Agreement recognises the need to respect and promote human rights, the rights of indigenous peoples, gender equality, women’s empowerment and intergenerational equity to achieve a just transition.

As a result, the Agreement and accompanying decision have the potential to set in train the steps needed to protect people living in the most vulnerable situations. They also provide a foundation to deal with any shortcomings which remain, including the provision of support for developing countries. This will require the continued engagement of governments working in partnership with citizens, businesses, local authorities and civil society. The inclusive process that enabled countries to come together in Paris is the key to strengthening the values signalled in the agreement so that they inform the design and implementation of climate actions over time.

In the years leading up to this agreement more and more people, businesses and civil society organisations have engaged with the climate agenda; as an issue of development, justice, rights and human security. The reference to climate justice in the preamble of the agreement is evidence that the calls of people through marches, petitions, online campaigns, music and the arts have been heard. We need to keep building this momentum between now and 2020, to translate the agreement into ambitious actions both at the national and local level.

Despite their differences, 196 countries came together to prove that a multilateral process built on trust and dialogue, and that respects the capacity of smaller delegations to engage, can yield strong results. By applying this Principle of Climate Justice, ensuring that decisions on climate change are participatory, transparent and accountable; the voices of people in vulnerable situations were heard and will be acted upon.

We have set the direction of travel in 2015 with this Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals. Together they send a strong message of hope that we can achieve a safer world with opportunity for all.

ENDS

Mary Robinson, seventh President of Ireland, President of the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice, and the United Nations Secretary General’s Special Envoy on Climate Change

The Paris Agreement can be found here.

International Human Rights Day at COP21

10/12/2015

Today we celebrate International Human Rights Day while COP21 continues in Paris, the historic city where the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed on the 10th of December 1948. In conjunction with the Mary Robinson Foundation for Climate Justice, UN Special Envoy on Climate Change Mary Robinson has a full day of climate justice dialogue at COP21.

Climate justice links human rights and development in a human-centred approach, safeguarding the rights of the most vulnerable people and sharing the burdens and benefits of climate change and its impacts equitably and fairly. In an interview, Ms Robinson stressed the importance of including not just "words, it's the values" of human rights that are important in the COP21 agreement.

The international human rights framework provides the global norms and legal tools with which to seek appropriate, rights-based responses to climate change, rooted in equality and justice. Human rights gives us internationally agreed values and legally defined minimum thresholds around which there is widespread consensus and a starting point from which common action commitments can be negotiated and implemented. The guarantee of basic rights rooted in recognition of the equal worth and respect for the dignity of each person at the core of this approach makes it an indispensable foundation for action on climate justice.

The UN Human Rights Council has recognized the relationship between existing human rights and the right to a healthy environment and accepts that climate change “poses an immediate and far-reaching threat to people and communities around the world.” Human rights such as the right to safe and adequate water and food, the right to health and adequate housing are threatened by climate change.

"Climate change is fundamentally an issue of human dignity, and is, therefore, inseparable from human rights,” Georgetown University, Women and Climate Change: Impact and Agency in Human Rights, Security and Economic Development.

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Gender Day at COP21

10/12/2015

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Today is "Gender Day" at COP21 - a day to reflect on the way that men and women experience climate change and it's impacts; and to consider the contributions and knowledge that both genders bring to the table. We know that women make up half the world’s population and the majority of the world’s poor and that the differential impacts of climate change are felt more strongly in situations of poverty, violent conflict or political instability.

"Climate change exacerbates existing inequalities and slows progress toward gender equality. Gender equality is a prerequisite for sustainable development and poverty reduction. But inequalities are magnified by climate change.”
                                                              Lorena Aquilar, International Union for Conservation in Nature

Research from the Mary Robinson Foundation - Climate Justice shows that women can become disproportionately vulnerable to climate related impacts in the following ways:
• Women are more dependent for their livelihood on natural resources that are threatened by climate change
• Women are often constrained in their response to sudden onset disasters such as floods and cyclones. During natural disasters, women and children are 14 times more likely to die than men
• Women farmers are disproportionately affected by climate change because of their limited access to natural resources and limited access to information and services about climate resilient and adaptive agricultural strategies and technologies
• Women face additional social, economic and political barriers that limit their participation and coping capacity

However, without equal access to representation, women’s voices are often overlooked in decision-making and policy and programme design.   At the half way point of COP21, Gender Day is firmly focussed on women's roles as leaders, innovators and change agents in addressing climate change.

Today, in an article published in Outreach, Mary Robinson writes:
"If we are to deliver gender responsive climate action then we must enable women’s meaningful participation in climate action. This requires investment in training, capacity building and financial support. Ensuring that women’s voices are heard and their priorities supported is central to realising climate justice. Only if women are enabled to participate as equals in the design of climate policy – so that their needs are considered and reflected in these policies – will we succeed. This is why gender equality and human rights have to be at the heart of the Paris climate agreement."
                                                                                  UN Special Envoy for Climate Change Mary Robinson

For more information, see the CCAFS Working Paper, the UN Women's Fact Sheet and the Expert Group Meeting's recommendations for Gender Responsive Climate Action.

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Statement from Mary Robinson on the Paris Agreement

International Human Rights Day at COP21

Gender Day at COP21

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