Working to Increase Popular Participation. Details Released on People’s Summit in Lima

In this report, we hear from three members of movements and organizations that participated in the Social PreCOP on Climate Change recently held on Margarita Island, Venezuela, from November 4 to 7, which for the first time aimed to explicitly create a space for organizations and social movements to have greater influence on the negotiations taking place in the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

For Maureen Santos of the Belém-based Grupo Carta, the PreCOP paved the way to “engage more organizations, not only in the region, but in France and other European countries as well that are working on what will be the next COP 21, in Paris.”

In the coming summit nations are expected to sign a new climate treaty, one that according to environmental organizations is at risk of being shaped by the interests of transnational corporations.

“I think the climate justice movement has been strengthened because we had good cooperation between North and South organizations,” said Santos.

Rosa Guillén from The World March of Women, for her part, expressed satisfaction with the fact that the number of participants in the People’s Summit is increasing.

“We found that many social movements are being inspired to participate, to express their opinions on these issues, but above all to strengthen our movement, moving forward in order to make sure that governments do not continue to mock our people and our organizations.”

Meanwhile, Ibis Fernández of the General Confederation of Workers of Peru confirmed that the People’s Summit already has a venue where it will be held from December 8 to 11: the Parque de la Exposición.

She also said that a key date in the summit will be December 10, International Human Rights Day, in which a global march will be held to change the system, not the climate.