The Pacific Alliance takes its first step towards green growth

Morelia Curiel
Posted by Morelia Curiel July 6, 2019

[vc_row type=”in_container” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]The allied countries committed themselves to begin a transition towards a green economy. This means giving up unsustainable modes of production, reducing the dependence on extractive sectors and fossil fuels, the fight against plastic and the move towards a circular economy.

PACIFIC ALLIANCE

The XIV Summit of the Pacific Alliance was held on July 6 in the city of Lima, in Peru.The Alliance, is made up of four countries –  Chile, Peru, Colombia, and Mexico – was born in 2011 as an economic initiative for these Latin American nations. At this summit, the Alliance welcomed Ecuador as a new Associated State, with a view to full membership in the future. 

The Pacific Alliance is the eighth economic power and the eighth largest exporter in the world. In Latin America and the Caribbean, the bloc is responsible for 37% of the GDP, concentrating 52% of total trade and attracting 45% of all the foreign direct investment. But the alliance admits that its growth has been anything but green, it has been accompanied by an economic dependence on extractive sectors, with high social and environmental costs, coupled with a constant increase of unsustainable patterns of consumption and production, which accentuates the pressure on natural resources and environmental quality, according to a study by the UN Environment

STUDY PRESENTED BY THE UN ENVIRONMENT AT THE XIV SUMMIT

The UN Environment presented at the Summit a report on these economies, called Green Growth in the Pacific Alliance: Advances and Opportunities for Cooperation, in which it carries out an analysis and puts forward recommendations by sectors of the relevant policies that were identified in common for the four countries and can increase cooperation and trade in more sustainable products: clean energy and energy efficiency; transportation and vehicles; and agriculture, likewise the study makes recommendations on strategic issues, sustainable finance, eco-innovation and public procurement; in this sense, the UN hopes to contribute to the mission of these countries for green growth and thus reaffirm their commitment to the UN 2030 Agenda.

COMMITMENTS OF THE PACIFIC ALLIANCE WITH GREEN GROWTH 

The Presidents of the Republic of Chile, Sebastián Piñera Echenique; of the Republic of Colombia, Iván Duque Márquez; of the United Mexican States, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (who was absent at the summit attended by the Mexican Foreign Minister, Marcelo Ebrard Casaubón); and from the Republic of Peru, Martín Vizcarra Cornejo, published the statement on the website of this Pacific Alliance that includes 26 points, including 4 in environmental matters:

  1. Sustainable management of plastics, they committed to combat single-use plastics.
  2. Harmonization of the Plastic Industry and the Circular Economy, they committed themselves to the fight against pollution and promote recycling and Circular Economy. 
  3. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development, with the help of the countries Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Japan and Norway will work together to carry out this mission.                                 

                                 . The development of sustainable fisheries.

                                 . Elimination of overfishing, as well as illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.

4. Support to the Chilean presidency for the success of COP 25 to continue moving forward in the implementation of the Paris Agreement and the Katowice Climate Package adopted at COP 24.

PLASTIC WALL ON THE BEACHES OF TIJUANA

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(PHOTO: OMAR MARTÍNEZ / CUARTOSCURO) plastic walls in Tijuana
Photo: pacifico alliance, was taken from its own website, it’s public

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]During the XIV Summit of the Pacific Alliance, environmental groups built a garbage wall of 15 meters long with an average of 25 kilograms of plastic waste in Playas de Tijuana, Mexico to create awareness about the pollution caused by plastic waste, the work is composed of garbage collected along the boardwalk and in different points of the border city.

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER?

The UN and the whole world is pleased with all these initiatives, but we know how late they have come, the island of the plastic or the new continent as they call it is a reality, what remains is to follow closely how fast this policies are running,  because it is precisely what is needed for an accelerated and efficient change in the way it is producing and growing in these and in most of the world’s economies.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]