Category: Current Issue Features

Dear COP28 President,
 
When you graciously invited the world to come to Dubai to attend COP28, you repeatedly assured us that your North Star would be science and the absolute necessity of limiting warming to 1.5°C. You told us you were committed to deliver the “most ambitious response” to the climate crisis.
 
ECO is sorry to let you know that the new GST text published yesterday makes a mockery of these claims. ECO was expecting to see the mitigation section of the new draft reflect the clear call from science and more than 100 countries calling for a full and fair phase out of fossil fuels. Instead, we had an incoherent, weak and vague menu of energy options that parties “could” implement and that are so far removed from what is needed to limit warming to 1.5°C that AOSIS has already called it its “death certificate”. 
 
ECO would like to repeat a clear message: your COP will be a complete failure unless it secures an agreement for a full, fast, fair and funded phase out of fossil fuels. The operationalization of the Loss and Damage fund was a major achievement of COP28, with some more work remaining to strengthen it. But the only way to deliver a truly historic COP  is through a clear, strong, 1.5°C aligned deal on fossil fuel phase out that is rooted in justice and equity.
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People who run circuses tell ECO that it’s only after the show, when the real work starts. As tents are dismantled, the planning, training and checking the details start straight away for the next show to be perfect for its audience.

We all knew that COP28 was when the framework should have been ready. But there was no proper effort at actually working on the product until the middle of this year. And the decision makers were still less involved. So when they came to take a look here, it was as if they were back to the start. Let ECO remind you, that for the people engulfed by floods, parched by droughts, swept by hurricanes, and especially those with the least resources to respond, the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) means the difference between life and death.

We cannot leave COP28 without any outcome on GGA. The GGA framework must have ambitious quantitative and qualitative targets with timelines and backed with finance and aligned with the NCQG and a clear roadmap on delivering the finace. 

Adaptation funding that does not increase the debt burden must be defined and more than doubled from the putative levels of 2019. The Adaptation Gap report reminded us that the funding scale must be increased by 10 to 18 times from the current levels.
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