About AILAC

“AILAC Builds bridges between the different negotiation groups, increasing trust and broadening the space for consensus building”
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What is AILAC

The Independent Association of Latin America and the Caribbean is a group of eight countries that share interests and positions on climate change.

 

Its main objective is to generate coordinated, ambitious positions and contribute to the balance in the multilateral negotiations on climate change with a coherent vision for sustainable development that is responsible to the environment and future generations.

AILAC comprises the following countries:

 

AILAC’s history

AILAC was established as a formal negotiating group under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in December 2012, during the Conference of the Parties in Doha, Qatar.

 

AILAC members began negotiating in a coordinated manner several years before the formal establishment of AILAC as negotiating group. The affinity of interests and similarity of their positions in international climate change policy prompted this spontaneous coordinated action.

The complexity of the negotiations and the limited capacities of the delegations AILAC countries also helped strengthen ties among them and increase coordination: long before the inception of the formal group, AILAC delegates acted as a single team, constantly sharing information with each other and occasionally representing each other in negotiation meetings. This spirit of camaraderie and cooperation also included countries such as Mexico and the Dominican Republic, who remain very close to AILAC and its work.

The increasing need to coordinate an orderly and efficient manner, and the search for a distinct identity that would enable the countries to be recognized as an increasingly important player in the negotiations, were the key catalyzers for AILAC’s creation as a formal negotiating group in 2012. It was the natural result of a process of continuous integration and consolidation of common positions between AILAC countries. Since June 2015, Paraguay formally joined AILAC, and Honduras joined AILAC during COP21 in Paris.