COP27 Egypt South America: The rising interest in Climate Change and Environment will be expressed in our “Climate Education Hub”

  Rodolfo Beltran, Director, Region South America EARTHDAY.ORG. 2011 INTERNATIONAL GREEN AWARD, London, UK;  Book. "Four Years Closer to Heaven" AMAZON

The 27th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 27) to the UNFCCC will take place in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.  Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, COP 26 was rescheduled from November 2020 to November 2021. As a result, COP 27 will take place from 6-18 November 2022.

One of the most significant international events preceding COP 27 was the UN General Assembly´s UNGA 77 historic resolution declaring access to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, a universal human right,   

Other events aligned with the value chain for environment education were the COP26 Glasgow CO-CHAIRS CONCLUSIONS OF EDUCATION AND ENVIRONMENT MINISTERS SUMMIT that recognized education as a society-wide learning process that can equip everyone with knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes needed for urgent action to combat climate change, and the Transforming Education Summit TEs  New York 2022, that provided a unique opportunity to elevate education to the top of the global political agenda and to mobilize action, ambition, solidarity, and solutions to recover pandemic-related learning losses and sow the seeds to transform education in a rapidly changing world.

International and Regional Leaders have expressed the importance and expectations of COP27:

Antonio Guterres United Nations Secretary-General

“Countries bound for COP27 must make climate action ‘the top global priority”. “The actions of the wealthiest developed and emerging economies simply don’t add up.,” ..he said, pointing out that current pledges and policies are “shutting the door” on limiting global temperature to 2°C, let alone meeting the 1.5°C goals. ……. “We are in a life-or-death struggle for our safety today and our survival tomorrow,” saying there is no time for pointing fingers or “twiddling thumbs” but instead requires “a quantum level compromise between developed and emerging economies”. The world can’t wait,”

President of COP 27 Abdel Fattah El-Sisi:

“The hosting of COP27 in the green city of Sharm El-Sheikh this year marks the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. In the thirty years since the world has come a long way in the fight against climate change and its negative impacts on our planet, we are now able to better understand the science behind climate change, better assess its impacts, and better develop tools to address its causes and consequences”.

Patricia Espinosa, former executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and before joining the U.N. served as Mexico’s secretary of foreign affairs:

 “This is one of the most difficult scenarios that we have seen for decades” …“It’s terrible.”…“ [COP 27] will be taking place in this very unfortunate situation. However, I think that we should use the conference as an opportunity to say: ‘Look, regardless of all of those crises, the climate change emergency remains the biggest threat to humanity, and in that regard, we cannot have the luxury of postponing any kind of action.”

For EARTHDAY South America this is a great opportunity to continue and reaffirm the service and Global Partnership of EARTHDAY.ORG as expressed by her President Kathleen Rogers.

“In 2022, we all must enter into one partnership for the planet. People, governments, and even most businesses fear change but the status quo – the way we live today – is changing before our eyes. In building our future, individuals, businesses, and governments each have a unique role – we need to act individually and together”.

Regional National, Sub National and Municipal Government progress has been attained such as  The Argentina Law on Comprehensive Environmental Education,  the Ecuador Minister Maria Brown Perez and President Guillermo Lasso's support for climate education at the Transforming Education Summit TEs New York 2022; joint agreement made by the Governments of Mexico and Peru to preserve and reinforce local native languages, as well as the presence of EARTHDAY.ORG as an International Observer of the Environment Agreement of the Sub National Government of Sao Paulo with Society, sustainable actions on Environment and Clean ups of the Municipal Governments of Lima with former Mayor Jorge Muñoz, Buenos Aires with Mayor Horacio Rodriguez Larreta  and Porto Alegre, with Mayor Sebastiao Mello, organization  of  the BUENOS AIRES 2022- C-40 Mayors Summit,  the recent Rio de Janeiro City Hall approval of Law No. 7,523/2022 –that provides for the inclusion  of Climate Education in  public schools, the 70^th anniversary of CPPS, Permanent Commission of South Pacific of the Governments of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Panama by the its Secretary  General Ambassador Jose Luis Perez Sanchez Cerro, the work of  IUCN , Region South America  and its Regional Director and former Minister of Environment of Peru  Gabriel Quijandria ,  the work of PROCASUR/ IFAD-UN providing education for Rural Youth  by Director  Juan Moreno, and the UNESCO–Quito work for Environmental Education by Education Head Officer Veronica Minaya Maldonado.

Some recent actions of South American honorary partners and volunteers*, will be promoted and displayed and will make a difference at our HUB. Some are:

The Amazon Flying rivers and BIKE Circuits of AMAZONIA PASSA AQUI  in 7 capital cities of Brazil, the visit and recognition as a  Model Elementary Environmental School of Ruth Koch Municipal center  in Pomerade Santa Catarina, Brazil -Director Edrimara Felix, the achievement  of 42 Native Yanomani by the Municipal Government of São Gabriel da Cachoeira (AM),  Amazon Teachers that graduated in their native language, recognition of  Youth Leaders like Julieta Martinez from Tremendous Chile TREMENDAS CHILE and Francisco Vera Manzanares , Guardianes for la Vida, Colombia that developed a network of International Environment Education, Human rights and international education leadership programs, the work  PIENSA SOSTENBLE International from Peru  and leader Mariana Benavente for an  ACTION plan  FOR LATIN AMERICA SUSTAINABILITY , The PANAKA Atayupanki Pachakuteq  extending their legacy from  Inca Pachacutec for  their work for the  Development of the AYMARA and QUECHUA cultures in the Andes, Clean UPS joint work with local Partner LIMPA BRASIL-Let´s do it  Director Ms. Eddilaine Muniz. 

*Note all pictures and complete notes are updated daily in Facebook EDO South America here

To learn more about how to get involved in our Climate Education Hub, show your proposals and experiences to the world; check out EARTHDAY.ORG’s links here