The meeting took place during PreCop25, an event that precedes the Climate Summit of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,
which will take place in December 2019 in Santiago, Chile.
Alajuela, Costa Rica, October 11. - “EUROCLIMA+ has been a laboratory for developing adaptation and mitigation measures in Latin America. Now we must go further and add value to the Programme. The European Union's climate ambitions have increased and broadening the alliance towards the Caribbean is fundamental," said Felice Zaccheo, Head of the Regional Programmes Unit for Latin America -DEVCO, European Commission, during the EUROCLIMA+ Annual Meeting 2019, an event organised jointly with the government of Costa Rica.
The meeting took place on October 10 and 11 in Alajuela, Costa Rica and was attended by 100 representatives from 18 countries in the Latin American region, those responsible for the EUROCLIMA+ programme in the European Union, the seven implementing agencies of the programme - UN Environment, ECLAC, FIIAPP, GIZ, AECID, AFD and Expertise France - and officials from various European Union delegations and the government of Costa Rica.
Rita Hernández Bolaños, Director of International Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Costa Rica, pointed out that this programme financed by the European Union (EU) "is an essential instrument for complying with the Paris agreements", thus highlighting the role that the programme has played in the development of collective actions to fulfil the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC).
Alicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) stressed that "EUROCLIMA+ has shown consistency in climate policy with the region. In this regard, the programme is a very important instrument for Latin America". The Secretary also referred to the mitigation and adaptation initiatives that ECLAC is developing under the programme’s framework.
Andrea Mesa, Director of Climate Change, Ministry of Environment and Energy, Costa Rica, said that "the programme has been important in democratising ideas for innovation by bringing together different actors from the various participating countries".
The Meeting was held in the same week of Pre-COP25 in order to seek synergies with the activities planned in Pre-COP25. In this context, on October 8, 2019, the programme held the side event entitled Strengthening the alliance between the European Union and Latin America for greater climate ambition.
Along the same lines, Saskia Rodríguez Steichen, Director of International Cooperation, Ministry of National Planning and Economic Policy, Costa Rica, highlighted how assertive it was to have held this meeting under the Pre-COP25 framework. The director also referred to the importance of EUROCLIMA+ as an international cooperation programme for the region and its contribution to understanding the issue of climate change as a cross-cutting cooperation issue.
Balance sheet and outlook for EUROCLIMA+
The EUROCLIMA+ Annual Meeting 2019 took stock of the programme's achievements. So far, 60 projects and 50 actions have been launched in the different countries that are part of EUROCLIMA+. Most are in an initial phase and will accelerate their implementation in 2020 and 2021. With the aim of improving coordination and increasing transparency in the development processes of the different actions and projects underway, the programme has launched Euclides, a knowledge management tool that will help achieve the goals set.
This meeting has served to validate the Country Dialogue mechanism as the main instrument for the identification and prioritisation of country demands under the NDC implementation framework. This tool has already been piloted in four previous experiences -Paraguay, Honduras, Ecuador and Cuba-, and will also be the mechanism that EUROCLIMA+ will propose for the coordination of actors in the sectoral approach and the joint monitoring of the development of actions.
Finally, the Meeting defined the document that establishes the strategic lines to be followed in the new stage of the programme that will begin in 2020.
More information about the meeting (available only in Spanish)
Here you can see photos of EUROCLIMA+ events.
About EUROCLIMA+
EUROCLIMA+ is a programme financed by the European Union, aimed at supporting the implementation of the commitments of the Paris Agreement, especially the nationally determined contributions, in 18 Latin American countries and thereby promoting environmentally sustainable and climate-resilient development for the benefit of the most vulnerable populations. EUROCLIMA+ is implemented through the synergistic work of seven international cooperation agencies: Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), French Development Agency (AFD), Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), Expertise France (EF), International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies (FIIAPP), and UN Environment.
Contact
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