There can be no climate justice without human rights

“There can be no climate justice without human rights”

This year’s Climate Change Conference (COP 27) will take place in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, from November 6 to 18, 2022. With Ecoaction, Censat Agua Viva and BUND/Friends of the Earth Germany, UfU’s project partners and friendly organizations will also be present on site to remind decision-makers of the need for global climate justice. The climate conference is being held under the patronage of the Egyptian government. In recent years, it has not only repeatedly presented climate protection strategies that are considered “highly inadequate” to achieve the global 1.5°C target[1], but has also increasingly restricted the opportunities for political participation of numerous civil society actors. This issue is also evident at COP 27: representatives of the climate movement in Sharm el-Sheikh report repressive measures against civil society actors, permanent state surveillance, severely restricted opportunities to organize, massive restrictions on freedom of expression and arrests of activists. Even at the conference itself, opportunities to demonstrate are severely restricted and subject to certain rules. This development is highly problematic. Projects such as our ZIVIKLI project show that climate protection and climate adaptation measures are more successful if they are adapted to the needs of local people. These needs are communicated primarily by non-governmental organizations and social and ecological movements. They are an important link between decision-makers and the population. They bring the demands of various population groups into official decision-making bodies, such as climate negotiations, and advocate for their consideration in the development and implementation of measures. In this way, climate civil society acts as a “watchdog”, helping to increase the ambition of climate policy measures and monitor their implementation. However, all of this is only possible if civil society organizations can work in an environment that does not hinder them from carrying out these activities. Guaranteed human rights and civil liberties are the cornerstones of such an open civil society space. In the context of the climate crisis and the restricted civil society space in Egypt, it is more important than ever to listen to the voices of civil society. UfU would therefore like to draw attention to the Egyptian Human Rights Coalition on COP27, a coalition of civil society organizations that draw attention to the need for an open and free civil society space to achieve global climate justice. [ 1] https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/egypt/