Macau can benefit from China’s role in the Paris Agreement

Ana Sofia Barros

Holding a doctorate in Public International Law from the University of Leuven (Belgium), Ana Sofia Barros has returned to Macau, a region where she lived for 12 years during her childhood, to speak about “hazardous industries and the protection of environmental rights.”

Her presentation was held this week during an event organized by the European Union Academic Programme in Macau (EUAP-M) at the Rui Cunha Foundation, where the expert said that Macau could benefit from China’s role in the recently signed Paris Agreement.

“With the Paris Agreement and with the intervention of China that will reinforce its commitment on the fight against climate change, I think this creates an interesting momentum because it implies a lot of effort [will be undertaken] against the number of vehicles in circulation and in the building of means to recover and store energy.”

“There will be a series of measures that from now on will be taken to prevent the goals [established and agreed] from being overrun by the emissions of greenhouse gases,” she added, “and invariably this will interfere with what is happening in Macau.”

The academic clarified that she has very positive feelings about recent events.

As Barros explained during the talk, the current trend in Europe and in parts of the American and African continents is that environmental protection is connected to human rights and to the right of people to demand a “good living environment.” This concept involves the interpretation of the Human Rights Declaration and its relation to other human rights documents, she said.

Where the Asian continent is concerned, the expert said that although there some people requesting improved environmental conditions, “there aren’t exactly any case logs [in the courts].” She noted that this may be due to the fact that human rights are not yet widely discussed in many Asian countries. However, Barros feels this is a fact that is likely to change soon.

Questioned on the sidelines of the event, Barros noted that the main inspiration that can be drawn for Macau and Asian countries from those in Europe is the example of “the recognition that individuals have environmental rights and participation rights and that people are fundamental in the decision-
making process and that their voices and interests need to be taken into account when [governments or private organizations] take decisions that carry environmental impact.”

Regarding specifically the SAR, she mentioned that, although there is not a clear pollutant industry, there is “an overload of vehicles that are pollutant.”

“There aren’t really electric vehicles [being operated in large numbers] and there is also a problem with waste treatment,” she said, adding that “there are quite a few environmental issues to be addressed in Macau.”

As for the biggest challenge for the region, Barros believes it is the “lack of operationalization of the existing law,” noting that, “although environmental protection is safeguarded by the Basic Law, an operationalization into a real environmental law has never been realized.”

Commenting on the decision of the USA to abandon the Paris Agreement, the specialist said: “It is not yet possible to acknowledge the real impact of such a decision.”

“Inside the country [the US], there are many mayors and companies that are willing to compromise directly with the United Nations to respect the maximum ceiling that was agreed,” concluding that “the power exercised at a local level can be a very important balance to Trump’s decision.”