APPENDIX A

Declaration of Commitment

Parliamentary Action to Stop Climate Change

3-5 August 2016 | Panama City, Panama

We, parliamentarians of 18 countries, gathered at this annual gathering on climate change entitled Parliamentary Action to Stop Climate Change in Panama City, Panama, on 4 and 5 August 2016, discussed our shared objective to strengthen the legislative agenda in order to overcome the challenges and implications of climate change, as well as its multiple effects and manifestations throughout the planet.

In the course of this gathering, parliamentarians from the Americas and the Caribbean, aware of the pressing issues generated by climate change, attended work sessions and exchanges with subject-matter experts in order to develop legislative strategies for a common agenda that will allow us to deal with environmental phenomena and their social and economic impact on people and communities. In furtherance of this objective, we have created the Parliamentary Network on Climate Change, a joint initiative developed by ParlAmericas and Parlatino to coordinate parliamentarian actions to fight climate change in the Hemisphere. Now therefore,

Acknowledging

That climate change is a pressing issue common to humankind which calls for coordinated actions and adequate responses from all sectors and institutions;

That climate change is a cross-cutting phenomenon with manifold manifestations which affects not only the environment but also the production and supply of food, natural resources, social and economic conditions, the displacement and mobilization of different populations, and the ability to respond to natural disasters;

That the impacts of climate change pose an open threat to humankind and to the planet at large, and therefore demand increased cooperation among all countries, as well as the adoption of coordinated mitigation actions;

That parliamentarians of the Americas and the Caribbean have a central role in the development of legislative strategies to mitigate and adapt to climate change;

That climate change policies call for domestic legislation that is consistent with international standards and agreements on the matter, particularly those set forth in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the agreements executed at the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC;

That mitigating the effects of climate change involves education, training, awareness-raising, and citizen's involvement, as well as public access to information and cooperation at all levels; 2

That climate change has different effects on the population and that, in our capacities as legislators, we are responsible for considering the impact it bears on indigenous communities, women, and youth, among other groups, as well as for involving the population as a whole in the development of the above-mentioned policies;

That technological breakthroughs and clean energy are essential in achieving the objective of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, with efforts being aimed at limiting this increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius, as approved in the Paris Agreement in December 2015;

That parliamentarians have been entrusted with the responsibility to adopt legislation that will promote and allow technological and scientific developments in order to increase the use of clean energy and thus curb climate change;

We undertake to:

1. Establish the Parliamentary Network on Climate Change as a hemispheric forum for legislative work and for the exchange of best practices to mitigate the environmental, social and economic effects of climate change.

2. Prioritize the phenomena associated to global warming, as well as their social, economic and environmental impact and strategies to deal with the same, in the public and legislative agendas of our countries.

3. Seek to strengthen framework legislation on climate change, and ensure a long-term legislative solution is adopted.

4. Follow up on the legislative actions and efforts taken to materialize the intended nationally determined contributions (INDC) in the periods between the Conferences of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

5. Work jointly with other sectors of society in the quest for sustainable answers to the challenges posed by global warming.

6. Encourage citizen's involvement in the development of legislation and the supervision of governmental and parliamentary policies on climate change, particularly by the groups that are most vulnerable to its impacts.

7. Consider the gender implications and differential approaches in the drafting of legislation to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

8. Foster the exchange of innovative practices in the fields of legislation, citizen involvement, scientific actions and policies to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

9. Ensure the development and implementation of legislative actions that will encourage scientific innovation in the area of climate change and electric transportation.

10. Encourage cooperation between Parliaments and Government agencies in the development and implementation of innovative policies to combat climate change and in measuring progress.

11. Promote international cooperation to curb climate change through parliamentary diplomacy, including the ratification of the Paris Agreement which was signed by 174 countries in New York on 22 April 2016.

12. Cooperate with international organizations such as the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), among others, and civil society organizations and indigenous peoples, in order to further the work of the Climate Change Network.

Signed in Panama City, Panama, on 5 August 2016.