Category: Previous Issues Articles

Finally, ECO’s practice of patience has come to an end. ECO woke up this morning to the much-awaited new iteration of the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) text. As ECO clicked on the link with shaky hands, one question loomed large: What will it be this time? And most importantly, will it be enough? 

An initial glance gave ECO some relief. The revised text is a convergence of perspectives, even displaying some options on its initial pages! As it turns out, parties also found this version of the text to be more balanced than its previous iterations, prompting a collective decision to delve right into its content. 

ECO does want to take a moment to celebrate the inclusion of its namesake throughout the GGA text. Particularly, ECO applauds the attention given to adaptation measures, emphasizing restoration, conservation, and the protection of terrestrial, inland water, marine, and coastal ecosystems. References through the text to local and Indigenous knowledge systems are similarly welcome, although parties could do a lot better to reinforce gender considerations.

While parties are now provided with an option to acknowledge the principles of equity and Common But Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capacities (CBDR-RC) of the Paris Agreement and Convention, alas, the coveted standalone permanent agenda item on the GGA becomes another mirage in this desert.
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The science is clear: We need to phase out all fossil fuels within the next 25 years, if not earlier. That is the only way to achieve the 1.5ºC ambition at the heart of the Paris Agreement.

Last week’s voluntary pledges and promises won’t cut it. In the last two days, ECO has read not one but two studies confirming this, from both the International Energy Agency and Climate Action Tracker. 

For this COP to be a success, there is a bright red line: it must secure an agreement to fully, rapidly, and equitably transition away from all fossil fuel production and use – to phase oil, gas, and coal out in a way that is fair, fast, full, funded, and forever. This must be part of a comprehensive energy package, alongside tripling renewable energy capacity and doubling energy efficiency deployment, securing a reduction in total energy demand – while enabling energy access for all. A package that also delivers rights, participation and real world action in the Just Transition Work Programme.

ECO takes heart that there is serious momentum to say bye to fossils and usher in a renewable future in the text one day before it is due. But some of the richest nations are trying to pretend everyone has the same role to play, hiding their decades of fossil gluttony and the fatter wallets it has given them.
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Your Excellencies,

ECO has – like this COP – reached an age where time matters. Since 1992 we have had a great time going to COPs and talking about solving the climate problem. As our 28th COP is spinning into its final days we paused to reflect on the urgency of our task, and our “slow hurry “to actually do it. 

ECO might be growing old, but ECO does not fail to realize and appreciate that the goal line at this COP is indeed significant. We are finally addressing the root cause of our common problem: getting rid of fossil fuels. ECO is all in favour (cheering from the sidelines now that the negotiations are behind closed doors). 
Fossil fuels must be phased out. However, ECO can’t stop worrying about the time factor. To sort this mess, it is in this critical decade we need to urgently scale up reductions. We know this. We agreed on this. But so far we haven’t done it. 
This time Eco doesn’t want another decision postponing action to happen in 2040 or 2050. This time we want action to begin NOW. We need a decision to have emissions peaking in 2025 and achieving a 43% reduction of emissions in relation to 2019 levels by 2030.
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ECO has been in the dark about the carbon market discussions yesterday. Is it foreshadowing what’s to come under 6.2? Looking at Saturday’s text, it sure seems like it.

If you think carbon markets are difficult to make sense of now, wait until the article 6.2 rules come into play. A review process that has no consequences, a confidentiality clause that has no limits, a step of actions that have no structure or order, and all of this within a framework which, let’s face it, allows countries to trade pretty much whatever they want (yes, even if it’s not measured in tCO2e!) and use it to meet their NDCs. What. A. Mess.

Parties, when you see the final 6.2 text today, and you get to decide whether to “take it or leave it”, here are some of the things that ECO would like you to look for before you “take it”:

• A definition of what a cooperative approach is – not to limit how Parties can cooperate (ECO loves cooperation) but rather to clarify what it is you’ve been talking about for the past 8 years!
• A clear set of guardrails to ensure that only sensitive information is deemed confidential. Confidentiality should be the exception, not the rule, and there can be no confidentiality without legitimate justification.

ECO knows a lot is going on – declarations, Majils, inf infs –- but does that mean a certain Party talking hard cash and funding momentum has forgotten something major? ECO gets it. We all have those moments where things fall through the cracks, especially the fundamentals. But how can we have a COP where Means of Implementation and more Finance are  the talk of town and not the Green Climate Fund (GCF)? Filling the GCF is crucial for implementing the Convention and Paris Agreement. With flashy financial commitments announced with fanfare outside of the Convention’s financial mechanism, perhaps the COP Presidency got distracted by the shiny and new and forgot to consider contributing – voluntarily –  to the tried and true? 

And Developed country Parties, don’t think you are off the hook! You should check your memories too.  Some GCF contributors have apparently forgotten to announce new pledges (and some don’t seem to know their fair share). Don’t they remember that significant pledges, rapidly fulfilled, must back up any claims for wanting to push climate action and ambition? Memory lapses happen, but ECO can help you recall that since the first replenishment, the climate catastrophe has worsened and developing countries are further caught in a debt trap.
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If you’re feeling dizzy or out of breath, it might be more than the usual near-end to negotiations delirium – we’re almost two weeks breathing air that’s way over the WHO air pollution recommendations. PM2.5 in Dubai has been over 40 every day since Dec 2nd, and has been over 60 the least three days – which is eight times the WHO’s maximum safe level. While there are grave health risks of long term exposure to air pollution, including stroke, heart disease and some cancers, even short term exposure to elevated PM2.5 has health risks, including asthma exacerbation, breathing challenges, and increased risk of respiratory infection – anyone get hit with that nasty COP cold going around? 

Have you noticed the gas flaring on the metro en route to the COP28 venue, or been stuck in evening traffic gridlock? Air pollution in Dubai is in large part due to vehicle emissions and fossil fuel energy production, we’re all getting a taste of the results of inaction on fossil fuel phase out – it is tangy, metallic and not at all pleasant. 

We’re hoping that this two week exposure to this grating reality of so many, will motivate negotiators to keep fossil fuel phase out language in the GST text.
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ECO would like to remind delegates to the Second Periodic Review of the Climate Convention which was held 2021-2022 and finalized one year ago at COP 27 with the intention to feed into the GST negotiations. The Review identified 10 key messages such as:

• At 1.1°C warming, the world is already experiencing extreme climate change. 
• Climate impacts and risks, including risk of irreversible impacts, increase with every increment of warming.
• It is still possible to achieve the long-term global goal with immediate and sustained emission reductions.
• The window of opportunity to achieve climate-resilient development is rapidly closing.
• The world is not on track to achieve the long-term global goal.
• Equity is key to achieving the long-term global goal. 

ECO recognises that the rate of global warming is occurring in line with projections or even worse. Global warming is happening faster and more drastically than anticipated while the projections for future climate impacts in coming decades might be exceeding the short-, mid, and long-term projections even under low emissions scenarios.

This brings us closer to Tipping Points that might trigger a complete instability and extinction of entire ecosystems, irreversibility of weather and other patterns and resilience of human communities – even before exceeding 1.5°C.
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It has been two months since Israel brazenly announced its intention to violate International Humanitarian Law by cutting off all food, water, and electricity to Palestinians in the already besieged Gaza. Simultaneously subjecting them to constant and indiscriminate bombings and ground attacks. From the second week of Israel’s campaign in Gaza, my cousins in Nuseirat Refugee Camp in the central Gaza Strip were concerned about water: 

“There is effectively no electricity or water in the Gaza Strip,” wrote Mohammed, a mathematics professor and young father of one, on October 17th. “We’re lucky to live next to an agricultural area so we can at least access [untreated] well water, but 90% of the population don’t even have this option. Displaced people sheltering in UNRWA schools come to us sometimes asking for just one liter of agricultural water – they are desperate. Many people are drinking unsafe water.” 

Weeks later, the effects of being forced to drink unclean water began to show:

“All of my children have suffered from diarrhea for days,” Wesam, a physician and mother of three children under the age of six, told me on November 11th.

Mohammed wrote on December 3rd that his two-year-old son is sick with gastrointestinal issues.
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In the rich tapestry of African wisdom, proverbs have long been used to convey complex ideas through simple, powerful metaphors. Let’s explore the critical need for a strong Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) framework through the lens of an African proverb:

“As the baobab tree stands sturdy, branching towards the sky, so must our GGA framework be – robust and reaching high.”

Just as a baobab tree supports many branches with its vast and sturdy trunk, a strong GGA framework must support a range of actions and goals. A tree without roots cannot stand – just as a framework without robust support and targets, including Means of Implementation (MoIs), is incomplete. Like a tree that grows but bears no fruit, a framework with targets but no metrics to measure progress also fails to fulfil its purpose.

We find ourselves at a crossroads, much like a traveller at the edge of the savannah, with a narrow path leading to 2040. This path is our opportunity to adapt at all levels with the scale and urgency required. Our GGA framework must be like a well-planned journey – purposeful, principled, covering all dimensions and themes, and mindful of the cross-cutting issues that intertwine like the roots of the great baobab.
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Time for cake today: it’s the Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ 75th birthday! ECO went all out to organize a surprise party at COP28 and invited a number of important guests, but no one showed up. What a pity that due to very foreseeable circumstances, the Right to Freedom of Expression couldn’t be there, and the Right to Peaceful Assembly could barely hobble in. In typical fashion, the Right to Remedy failed to RSVP, and the Right to Life cancelled. The new kid on the block, the Right to a Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment, said the fine particulate levels were too high to make it to the party.

But don’t worry! ECO found a few extra guests to invite at the last minute. The Paris Agreement showed up and brought some friends: the Global Stocktake, the Just Transition Work Programme, and the Global Goal on Adaptation. They don’t know the Declaration that well yet, but nothing like free drinks to kickstart a long-lasting relationship. Human rights must be at the operational core of the COP28 outcome for all our new guests: it will make them more effective – as confirmed by the IPCC – and in line with Parties’ international obligations. 
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