AIDA Americas: Mexico Uses Climate Threat to Justify 'Slum Clearance' Alex Pashley - RTCC.org
go to original May 6, 2015

Human Rights and Environment (AIDAamericas)

In an unprecedented move, the government has drawn up a strategy to clear slums at risk of climate change-induced natural disasters.

As part of its contribution to a UN global climate pact, the world’s 13th largest emitter of greenhouse gases in March outlined its climate change adaptation strategy until 2030.

It aims to guarantee food and water security for its 122 million citizens, as well as halve the number of municipalities classed as “most vulnerable” to climate impacts through the prism of human rights and gender.

But one line of the document, namely action number 9 for adaptation in the “social sector”, is causing concern.

“Relocate irregular human settlements in zones prone to disasters through land use regulations,” it reads.

Translated, that means only one thing for Maria Jose Veramendi, a senior attorney at environmental law group AIDA Americas: slum clearance.

As far as she knows, it is the first time climate change has been used to justify such a policy.

“I think it is a dangerous thing to put in there,” she tells RTCC. ”It’s clear it is needed but you cannot use human rights and the protection of people in the face of climate change to enforce zoning regulations.”

If the issue is vulnerability to climate change, she asks, why is it only “irregular” settlements that have to move?

Seven in ten Mexicans live in urban areas, a trend that has surged since the 1960s as cities absorbed job seekers and the displaced.

Nowhere is that clearer than in the capital, where settlements have sprung up to devour the unclaimed countryside.

Read the rest at RTCC.org

What is AIDA? (AIDAamericas)

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