In reverse to the COP 20

By Ricardo Jiménez

ALAI, 27 June 2014.- The Government of Peru, host of the upcoming 20th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, to be held in Lima in December this year, has not felt the need to even minimally give the appearance of environmental responsibility before this historic event.

A few days ago, it publicly presented a number of measures that weaken the fledgling environmental institutions and allow higher levels of environmental pollution, violating national and international standards.

As in colonial times, when native peoples suffered massive exploitation and plunder, the government proposes these measures under the euphemism of "environmental easing" in order to encourage investment (as with the "labor flexibility" to override workers’ rights).

Beyond the euphemisms and the politically correct discourses, the message is clear. Environmental concern is a decoration reluctantly accepted and that the government considers in opposition to economic growth, which is presented as an unquestionable truth and a solution to poverty despite the facts of reality which are as paradoxical as the measures taken by the host of the next COP.

In 2013, Peru achieved macroeconomic growth of 5.2%, the fourth among Latin American countries (ECLAC, 2014). Paradoxically, according to the INEI official figures, poverty increased -yes, you read correctly, increased- in eight regions.

Cajamarca, an emblematic region with serious and persistent environmental conflicts, which caused several deaths due to police repression under the current government, is the most impoverished region of the country despite and contrary to the official discourse of investment and growth. In this same region, the much questioned mining company Minera Yanacocha has been "investing" for twenty years.

It does not take much to guess that we will see an increase in social conflicts in Peru in the coming years. Even more daunting is that Peru, as host of the COP20, has given this weakening blow to what humanity needs and hopes for from the Conference.

In this sea of paradoxes, it is sad though also logical, to recognize that Peru is not moving forward to the COP20, but in reverse.

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Traducción de Luis Claps para IWGIA y Servindi.