Responses

Name:

Morten Gøbel

Organisation:

Oxfam DK

Response:

One of the main priorities of the IFU project is to promote private sector investments in renewable energy projects. Thus, this comment aims to emphasize the importance of strengthening due diligence assessments of private sector operators in all aspects of such project operations in order to safeguard human rights, social development environmental sustainability. Several studies1 have recently documented how mega renewable projects and extraction of transition minerals are seriously lacking respect for basic human rights principles such as FPIC, land, tenure, and water rights of indigenous communities for example. In April 2022, a large windmill project was stopped by the Mexican government due to violations of human rights. Moreover, the sources of energy generated by these projects are in many cases not benefitting the local communities. These problems were also highlighted at a high-level conference in New York on clean energy and indigenous people´s rights organized by the UN Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues in April 2024. And, on April 25th, the European Parliament approved a new due diligence directive requiring firms and their upstream and downstream partners, including supply, production, and distribution to prevent, end or mitigate their adverse impact on human rights and the environment. If such due diligence principles are not systematically upheld, there is a risk that the green transition projects will repeat some of the malpractices of fossil fuel and extractive industries. Thereby, the transition might be green but certainly not just. 1https://ccsi.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/content/docs/publications/final_RenewablesAndHumanRights%20%28Brief%29.pdf

Name:

lene beuchet

Organisation:

DFPA

Response:

Response to the Strategic Framework for the Tropical Forests Initiative for Climate and Sustainable Development 2024 – 2027 The Danish Family Planning Association (DFPA) appreciates the opportunity to provide inputs and comments to Strategic Framework for the Tropical Forests Initiative for Climate and Sustainable Development 2024 – 2027. Overall, we welcome the capital contribution to the Tropical Forests Initiative and see this in line with the political commitment to provide climate finance. We appreciate that the strategic framework is referring to HRBA and LNOB and that the program has a strong focus on contributing to gender equality. Gender equality is key is climate justice and sustainable climate action. And so is health, including sexual and reproductive health. Healthy and gender equal communities are more resilient and better positioned to adapt to climate change effects. The impacts of the climate crisis on sexual and reproductive health and rights are many. They include reduced or unavailable services in areas affected by disasters, harmful impacts on maternal health due to heat exposure, and increased incidence of sexual and gender-based violence in situations of humanitarian crises or displacement. As the impacts of the climate crisis become more severe, adverse outcomes for sexual and reproductive health and rights will only increase. Inequalities and marginalization are key factors in heightening vulnerability to the impacts of the climate crisis. Addressing gender inequality and other forms of marginalization is therefore crucial for reducing vulnerability and enhancing resilience. Sexual and reproductive health and rights are critical for advancing gender equality and for overcoming marginalization and thus for strengthening individuals’ and communities’ resilience and capacity to adapt to the climate crisis. Sexual and reproductive health and rights should be recognized as an important element of climate change adaptation and resilience. But control of people’s reproductive health and fertility can never be a mitigation strategy. We therefor see one of the strategies proposed under Support to The Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI) under The Tropical Forests Initiative for climate and development 2024-2027as highly problematic. On page 141 of the document (project document for The Central African Forest Initiative (2024-27) page 29-30) it reads that the CAFI is going to use the following two strategies to achieve the outcome “Population growth and migration to forests and forest fronts are slowed down”; 1: Access to modern family planning services increased and 2: Family planning awareness amongst women and men increased. We would like to stress that the proposal of promoting family planning as a mitigation strategy aiming to reduce population size is not in line with HRBA. Such a strategy violates people’s sexual and reproductive health and rights and bodily autonomy. Rhetoric and actions suggesting curbs on the fertility of women and girls as a solution for social and environmental ills have a long and dangerous history and still manifest today. Policies and practices driven by a desire to stem population growth have led to countless human rights violations. The International Conference on Population and Development in 1994 marked an important shift away from earlier population focused objectives to a broader sexual and reproductive health and rights agenda, grounded in individual human rights. The urgency of the climate crisis must not serve as justification for harmful and coercive population control narratives, policies, and practices. Mitigation of climate change requires addressing unsustainable patterns of consumption and production, particularly in high income countries, where per capita levels of greenhouse gas emissions far exceed those in lower income groups. Promotion of contraception as a solution for climate change instrumentalizes women’s and girls’ bodies and places emphasis and responsibility for tackling the climate crisis on those least responsible for contributing to it but most severely affected by its impacts. It is a deeply unjust and harmful distraction from countries’ responsibilities to address the structural drivers of the climate crisis. We therefor urge the Department for Green Diplomacy and Climate, Danida to revisit The Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI) project again and make sure that the project is based on human rights and ensuring that it is in no way violating peoples SRHR. On the other hand, we encourage Department for Green Diplomacy and Climate, Danida to include access to the full range of SRHR as an effective adaptation strategy throughout the Strategic Framework for the Tropical Forests Initiative for Climate and Sustainable Development 2024 – 2027 and we stand ready to provide technical advice and experience in that regards may it be relevant.

Name:

Ina Lykke Jensen

Organisation:

Disabled Peoples' Organisations Denmark

Response:

DH anbefaler, at konceptnoten præciserer, at reformen af DSIF skal sikre, at DSIF 2.0. skal følge principper for universelt design og leve op til standarder for fuld tilgængelighed, at mennesker med handicap og deres repræsentative organisationer involveres i beslutninger og løsninger, samt at data, der lægges til grund for investeringer, skal indeholde dis-aggregerede og inklusive data, hvor handicap indgår.

File:

Name:

Nicolai Houe

Organisation:

CISU - Civil Society in Development

Response:

CISU recognizes the need to include investments in sustainable infrastructure to improve access to clean water and energy for underserved people in LDCs and LMICs. Based upon the DSIF 2.0 concept note, CISU has the following comments, which we hope will be considered by the program committee. - Given the timeframe of the program and the magnitude of the projects, CISU encourage DSIF to have a structured process for engaging CSOs and local civil society in the feasibility phase of the projects, ensuring timely hearing processes and dialogues prior to decision and implementation of any projects. - Given prior challenges in relation to the rights of indigenous people and local communities in relation to major projects, CISU encourages DSIF to ensure that no rights are violated in relation to any projects that DSIF invests in or promotes. - Respecting that in some cases, large infrastructure projects may be the solution, CISU encourages DSIF to find a model for local / regional solutions that may be more sustainable and will allow more people to benefit from the investment. In general, CISU want to encourage collaboration and dialogue between IFU funded projects and civil society to support impact, and distributed access and benefits from the investments.