On November 10 this year, ambassadors and representatives of hundreds of countries will meet in Pará to the United Nations Conference on Climate Change) of 2025.
In a politically unstable international panorama and with increasingly unpredictable climate scenarios, COP will be an important public space for negotiations between countries interested in trying to harmonize economic growth with sustainable development.
In addition to institutional dialogues, commitments and statements, this global event will also be an opportunity to present actions and advances made by each of the countries present there. As a host of the meeting, Brazil, as well as words and a beautiful event space, is expected to present concrete examples of how sustainability is taken seriously by our country.
In ours, still in May 2024, in the midst of the tragic floods of Rio Grande do Sul, we talk about the importance of access to public information so that our society can mobilize to prepare and literally survive the new climate reality.
No clear institutional criteria and milestones, which ensure transparency and participation, we are at the mercy of advertised disasters. Many measures, structural and institutional, need to be taken by Brazilian institutions to change this scenario, one of the most relevant approval, by,.
The regional agreement on access to information, public participation and access to justice in environmental affairs in Latin America and the Caribbean, which came into force in 2021, is the first treaty dedicated to environmental transparency in the world and also an innovative international instrument regarding the protection of environmental defenders facing threats and violence in the region.
The implementation of the text would place our country on another level of public transparency, establishing clear criteria for access to data and participation in the formulation of public policies, procedures of resource and independent revision in case of negatives and proactive publication of social and environmental information. It was specially designed to enable the social participation of indigenous populations and more vulnerable groups in the face of the environmental crisis.
Ratified by 17 countries, the treaty is already in force in 85% of countries in the region. The agreement was signed by Brazil seven years ago, in September 2018, and throughout the Bolsonaro government was not sent to Congress. In just three months, in May 2023, the Lula administration filed a ratification request for, which has been still there.
In our country, however, the fact that we are in the process of hosting the largest international meeting on the subject seems not to have been enough to convince our deputies and senators to prioritize discussions.
Even after two years since it was presented to the House, the Escazú agreement has not yet been completed by any of the four committees that it must go before being subjected to the Plenary. Although still in 2023 he received from Deputy Amon Mandel (Cidadania-AM) at the Foreign Relations Commission, members of the collegiate have not yet put the opinion in vote. In practice, without a proactive stance on the part of the home leaders, the text is still shelved.
Far from being a mere juridical, the approval of the Escazú agreement is also essential for combating organized crime, and money laundering involving environmental crimes. Its text creates mechanisms that give strength to identify deviations and irregularities before they cause more serious damage to society and the state.
Last month, the CTICC (Public Transparency, Integrity and Combating Corruption) Council of the Federal Government, of which we are part, published. The demand is widely echoed by civil society: the Escazú Brazil movement brings together more than a hundred Brazilian and international organizations committed to the approval of the agreement and the protection of the right to environmental information.
His support and prioritization by the National Congress leaders, especially by the presidents of the Chamber and the, are necessary for us to arrive in November to COP with conditions to show that we are committed to the protection of climate advocates, the participation of affected in public policy decisions and cooperation with our neighbors.
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