On 3 and 4 April this year, the first Climate Justice Dialogue will be hosted in Santiago de Chile. The event has been organised by Chile's Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, jointly with the World Resources Institute (WRI), the Mary Robinson Foundation for Climate Justice (MRF-CJ), the Chile University of Law School through its Climate and Resilience Science Center, and the research and advisory network Energeia.

The Climate Justice Dialogue is an innovative, new initiative held jointly by WRI and MRF-CJ with the aim of mobilising political willingness to build an equitable and ambitious climate agreement by 2015. This first Dialogue is expected to be replicated around the world while negotiations work towards a new global and legally binding agreement in the framework of the UNFCCC by 2015.

The main objective of the Dialogue in Chile is to foster a creative and practical debate about the best way to develop the foundations of the new agreement, particularly how to apply the principles of the UNFCCC, while achieving a broader and more ambitious participation by the Convention member countries.

The Dialogue will be opened by the Minister of Environment of Chile, Maria Ignacia Benitez, and the Director of Environment and Maritime Affairs from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile, Ambassador José Luis Balmaceda. In the run up to the event, minister Benitez highlighted that, “the perspective of a new global and legally binding agreement of climate change presents an opportunity to Chile: to achieve the goals of economic development separated from greenhouse gas emissions”.

The Climate Justice Dialogue will bring together highly experienced climate change negotiators from Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama, Peru, Mexico and the Dominican Republic, (including negotiators from the Independent Association for Latin America and the Caribbean (AILAC), which is a new negotiating group announced during COP 18) with the purpose of influencing UNFCCC climate change negotiations, in particular, aiming to achieve an ambitious and legally binding agreement by 2015.

The Dialogue will be attended by the former President, Ricardo Lagos (Climate Justice Dialogue advisor) as well as experts on international law and public policies of climate change from the Amazonas University, IDLO, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

The Climate Justice Dialogue is a multi-stakeholder process, involving many donors and supporting organisations; CDKN is pleased to be supporting the Chile workshop.