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Argentina’s President Will Participate in Inauguration of the Second Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Escazú Agreement
The President of the Argentine Republic, Alberto Fernández, will attend the opening session of the second meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 2) to the Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean – known as the Escazú Agreement – on April 19 in Buenos Aires.
At the event, which will continue through April 21 in Argentina’s capital, authorities and official representatives of the countries that are already part of the region’s first environmental treaty will elect the inaugural members of the Committee to Support Implementation and Compliance of the treaty and will consider any other matter decided by the Parties. Furthermore, they will welcome the new States Parties incorporated since the COP 1: Belize, Chile and Grenada.
The inauguration of the COP 2 of the Escazú Agreement will take place at 6 p.m. local time (GMT -3) on Wednesday, April 19 at the Centro Cultural Kirchner (CCK). The session will be led by Cecilia Nicolini, Secretary of Climate Change, Sustainable Development and Innovation of Argentina, and speakers will include the Environment Ministers of Uruguay, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina and Brazil: Robert Bouvier, Maureen Hyman-Payne, Juan Cabandié and Marina Silva, respectively. Also scheduled to speak are Raúl García Buchaca, Deputy Executive Secretary for Management and Programme Analysis of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), which is the United Nations regional organization that serves as Secretariat of the Agreement; Mijael Kaufman, Elected Representative of the Public; and Christian Asinelli, Corporate Vice President of Strategic Programming of CAF–Development Bank of Latin America.
At the end of the opening session, Argentine President Alberto Fernández is expected to address those attending and officially declare the meeting’s commencement.
Members of the media are invited to attend the event’s inauguration. Only those journalists and members of the press who register in advance, using the following form, will be allowed entry: https://forms.gle/WGRg9rUUZf8MMba3A. IMPORTANT: In order to attend the meeting’s inauguration on April 19 at the Centro Cultural Kirchner, it is requested that people pick up their identification badges ahead of time at the Hotel Libertador, located at Avenida Cordoba 690, Buenos Aires, between 12 p.m. and 4 p.m. |
As of Thursday, April 20, the various sessions of the second Conference of the Parties to the Escazú Agreement will take place in person in the conference rooms of the Hotel Libertador in Argentina’s capital.
On the second day (April 20), in addition to the Presiding Officers’ presentation of the roster of candidates for the Committee to Support Implementation and Compliance, a Special Session will be held under the title of Comparative experiences of bodies to support implementation and compliance. Also, the Regional Dialogue: Strengthening capacities for national implementation will take place.
Meanwhile, on April 21, two Special Sessions will be carried out: one on follow-up to Decision I/6 on human rights defenders in environmental matters, and another on follow-up to Decision I/4 on financial arrangements and report of the Voluntary Fund. In addition, the election of the members of the Committee to Support Implementation and Compliance will take place and the COP 2’s decisions will be adopted.
Furthermore, numerous virtual official side events will be held on April 19-21 in the framework of the conference, the details of which will be available on the meeting’s website.
Thus far, the Escazú Agreement has been signed by 24 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean and features 15 States Parties: Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Grenada, Guyana, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Uruguay.
The Agreement was adopted in Escazú, Costa Rica on March 4, 2018 and entered into force on April 22, 2021. The 24 countries that have signed it can proceed to deposit their instruments of ratification at any time at the United Nations central headquarters in New York. The countries that did not sign it within the first stipulated time frame (between September 27, 2018 and September 26, 2020) can become Parties through accession (a one-step procedure that necessitates no signature). The instruments of accession have the same legal requirements and effects as ratification.
The full programme of the COP 2 of the Escazú Agreement is available on the meeting’s special website: https://acuerdodeescazu.cepal.org/cop2/en
Journalists and other members of the press who want to cover this event in person are requested to register using this form: https://forms.gle/WGRg9rUUZf8MMba3A
Registration for participants (authorities, official delegations, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, representatives of civil society, etc.) is separate from press registration and is also available on the event’s website.
The event’s official activities can be followed live virtually via the meeting’s website, ECLAC’s official Internet portal www.cepal.org, the webpage https://live.cepal.org/escazu and the Commission’s institutional accounts on Twitter (https://twitter.com/cepal_onu) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/cepal.onu).
What: Second meeting (extraordinary) of the Conference of the Parties to the Escazú Agreement (COP 2).
When: Wednesday, April 19 to Friday, April 21, 2023.
Where: Hotel Libertador, Avenida Cordoba 690, Buenos Aires 1054, Argentina.
Inauguration (Wednesday, April 19, 6 p.m. local time): Centro Cultural Kirchner, Sarmiento 151, C1041 CABA.
- Alberto Fernández, President of the Argentine Republic.
- Robert Bouvier, Environment Minister of the Eastern Republic of Uruguay.
- Maureen Hyman-Payne, Honorable Senator, Minister of State for Legal Affairs and Parliamentary Secretary of Antigua and Barbuda.
- Juan Cabandié, Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development of Argentina.
- Marina Silva, Minister of Environment and Climate Change of Brazil.
- Raúl García Buchaca, Deputy Executive Secretary for Management and Programme Analysis of ECLAC.
- Mijael Kaufman, Elected Representative of the Public.
- Christian Asinelli, Corporate Vice President of Strategic Programming of CAF–Development Bank of Latin America.
- Cecilia Nicolini, Secretary of Climate Change, Sustainable Development and Innovation of the Argentine Republic.
Virtual connection via various platforms:
- Meeting’s website: https://acuerdodeescazu.cepal.org/cop2/en
- ECLAC’s website: www.cepal.org
- Live transmission: https://live.cepal.org/escazu
- Official account on Twitter: https://twitter.com/cepal_onu
- Official account on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cepal.onu
For queries related to journalistic coverage of this event, contact:
- In Santiago, Chile, ECLAC’s Public Information Unit. Email: prensa@cepal.org; Telephone: (56) 22210 2040.
- In Buenos Aires, the Secretariat of Climate Change, Sustainable Development and Innovation at Argentina’s Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development. Email: acuerdoescazu@ambiente.gob.ar / comunicacionsccdsei@ambiente.gob.ar.