Who Will Dance the 2018 INDC Tango?

With it rich history of dancing the tango, Argentina knows that, for a knockout show, leadership and collaboration are essential.

ECO is heartened by the Argentinean government’s decision to revise its INDC before 2018. They also appear to be betting on a clean energy future, as they just announced their first auction of 1GW of renewable energy capacity.

If we are to have any hope of  keeping warming below the 1.5°C upper limit, all Parties must scale up the ambition of their INDCs. Yet, countries are too reluctant to take the floor and signal their intention of increasing national ambition.

ECO appreciates the way in which Parties embraced the complex steps and turns for their debut INDC dance performance. Limited time and resources to pull them together—and in some cases insufficient buy-in from powerful finance and planning ministries—hampered the process.

Bearing in mind the global ambition gap, ECO demands that Parties don’t lapse into a melancholic slump to the sounds of a bandoneon, but rather stand up and implement the INDCs already on offer. The next two years are available to identify additional areas of mitigation and adaptation opportunities, and means of implementation support, through participatory and inclusive NDC processes.

Parties will agree that dancing alone is no fun at all. So ECO suggests Parties join Argentina, the Philippines and others (oh, and Canada, we know you really want to—just go for it!) on the way to 2018. Countries must also throw open their doors and invite NGOs, cities, multilateral development banks and the private sector to support efforts to line the NDCs up with the Paris Agreement.

The necessity to keep warming below 1.5°C,  and the long-term mitigation and adaptation goals, must set the scope for the revision of the NDCs, while linking them to the 2050 low emission development plans. Greater ambition by all—and especially by developed countries—means more opportunities for cleaner and resilient development, while reducing impacts on the most vulnerable.

ECO looks forward to seeing all Parties come together for a stupendous 2018 milonga to secure a safe climate and promote 100% renewable energy by 2050!