While Parties negotiate key aspects of the Paris Agreement in the APA informals, only 2 representatives per constituency are allowed to enter each of these sessions. ECO reminds Parties that just 6 months ago, all Parties “reaffirmed the fundamental value of effective participation by observers in the intergovernmental process […] and acknowledged the need to further enhance effective engagement of observer organisations as the UNFCCC process moves forward into implementation and operationalisation of the Paris Agreement” (SBI conclusions on AIM). Surely this does not mean that 99% of observers should be left out in the cold.
Observer organisations represent a very broad range of perspectives and expertise which are essential to the success of negotiations. Their wealth of experience is completely obliterated by imposing such tight restrictions on their presence and participation.
Having spent months preparing for the conference, eventually getting a ticket to one negotiation is surely not enhanced participation, unless your baseline was no access at all
ECO knows there are better uses of everyone’s (ours and the secretariat’s) time, so we request that the secretariat complies with the commitment reiterated by Parties for effective participation, and call on Parties and the Presidency to end this new practice of keeping most observers out of the room.