A/77/549 Carbon capture can lock current pollution in place, rather than facilitating energy transition. It is reported in the submission that many carbon capture programmes are launched in places already overburdened by the heavy concentration of toxic industrial pollution. These places overlap with the “racial sacrifice zones” described above. This trend is especially concerning because carbon capture can increase the emission of harmful air pollutants at the site of capture because of the increased energy required to power the capture equipment and the chemicals used in the process. 65. Other experimental or speculative technologies proposed in response to climate change potentially pose significant risks to human rights. For example, experts believe that some “geoengineering” projects meant to adapt to climate change may have significant adverse impacts, including termination shock, rainfall disruption, water depletion and the erosion of human and ecological resilience. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned against overreliance on unproven technologies that could disrupt natural systems and disproportionately harm global South communities. 121 66. Other programmes and policies could similarly have negative impacts on Indigenous Peoples and racially marginalized peoples in the global South. For example, some experts have extensively criticized the REDD+ programme for its use of over-optimistic projections but also its use of Indigenous territories and denial of certain communities’ rights of self-determination. 122 In one submission the role of REDD+ is reported in providing cover for land grabs against Indigenous Peoples. 123 67. In one submission it was noted that access to available climate financing, especially at the local level, remains a critical challenge. It was also reported in the submission that experts have described the operation of international climate institutions as a form of indirect colonization. Projects are often env isioned and directed by international institutions that tend to privilege global North perspectives over global South contributions. 124 Climate and racial injustice rooted in existing international frameworks 68. A complex framework on international environmental law exists, and with the creation of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and the adoption of the Stockholm Declaration and Action Plan for the Human Environment at the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, held in Stockholm in 1972, United Nations Member States initiated a regime for global environmental coordination. Multiple treaties address pollution and biodiversity, although this section is focused on climate change governance, including through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol thereto and the Paris Agreement. In the Framework Convention three pillars in the fight against climate change are advanced: adaptation, mitigation and “loss and damage”. 69. In United Nations environmental and climate negotiations, global South States have consistently advocated for an international environmental framework in which structural disparities in the global economic and political system are recognized. In her address at the Stockholm Conference, whose outcomes were greatly influenced by global North economists, 125 the Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, called for __________________ 121 122 123 124 125 20/24 Ibid. Submission from Dehm. Submission from the Indigenous Environmental Network. Submission from the Centre for Economic and Social Rights. See Karin Mickelson, “The Stockholm Conference and the creation of the North -South divide in international environmental law and policy”, in International Environmental Law and the Global South, Shawkat Alam and others, eds. (New York, Cambridge University Press, 2015); and Philip Mcmichael, “Contemporary contradictions of the global development project: geopolitics, global ecology and the ‘development climate’”, Third World Quarterly, vol. 30, No. 1 (2009). 22-24043