Gi-ESCR, in collaboration with the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO), the Friends World Committee for Consultation, and the Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA), has handed in a joint submission to the Katowice Committee of Experts on the Impacts of the Implementation of Response Measures (KCI) to climate change. The submission highlights the need for States to swiftly move to renewable energy sources while at the same time ensuring that such a shift uses international human rights law to ensure a just green transition for everyone. Moreover, the paper emphasises that indigenous communities, especially indigenous women, have been disproportionately adversely affected by large-scale renewable energy projects which are not rooted in the respect, protection and fulfilment of human rights. States should look towards decentralised and community-led renewable energy projects rather than large-scale renewable energy solutions, while ensuring women’s full and effective participation within all decision-making stages.

The KCI is a constituted body under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which was established in Katowice December 2018 to support the work programme of the forum on the impact of the implementation of response measures. The KCI meets twice a year in conjunction with the meetings of the subsidiary bodies to implement its workplan. GI-ESCR made a submission to the Committee’s Workplan Activity 9, which focusses on the impacts of the implementation of response measures taking into account intergenerational equity, gender considerations and the needs of local communities, indigenous peoples, youth and other people in vulnerable situations.

This is the first submission of GI-ESCR to a body under the UNFCCC with the prospect of increasing our engagement in this UN space to further strengthen the narrative that States and other stakeholders must use human rights as a compass to guide them towards a just green transition. The submission is in line with GI-ESCR’s engagement with the Unión Hidalgo case in which the indigenous Zapoteca community seeks justice for human rights violations on their indigenous territory due to a large-scale renewable energy project. Read more about GI-ESCR’s engagement on the case here.