Monthly Archive: November 2013

It was an all too familiar feeling when Parties started repeating their well-known positions and citing already agreed decisions here in Warsaw. But ECO does like the recent trend citing one key notion: urgency.

AOSIS has made significant efforts to establish a concrete technical process to accelerate action on renewables and energy efficiency – that’s a direct way to close the ambition gap.

Columbia (AILAC) and The Gambia (LDCs) have been trying to capture the discussion of ‘elements’ in the 2015 agreement in as concrete and formal a manner as possible.

And the LDCs and Trinidad and Tobago have stressed the need for a compliance mechanism item in the list of issues to discuss next year. Those are all elements of action that respond to urgency.

The Like-Minded Developing Countries stressed another very important issue. Finance, technology and capacity-building support are essential for developing countries to implement their NAMAs.

On the other hand, the proposal from various like-minded countries to delete paragraph 9 altogether is a disappointing development.

For a change, we can even commend some developed countries, in addition to Swaziland (African Group) and South Africa, for their efforts to specify the timeline and concrete steps toward Paris. Norway made a good proposal to have mitigation commitments presented within 2014.
... Read more ...

After being subjected to the taste of coal in the air and statements about the inevitability of continued coal use for almost two weeks, at last we have exciting news from the Canadian province of Ontario. The provincial government has just announced it will switch off its last active coal-fired power plant within weeks.

This will make Canada’s most populous province the first jurisdiction in the world to complete a coal phase-out. Just 10 years ago coal was 27% of the energy mix in Ontario’s power sector, with a total capacity of 7,500 MW. This week’s announcement is an example of how political will, spurred by public concern and combined with smart policies supporting energy efficiency and renewables, can help break coal addiction. As a result, smog, dust and mercury levels have already fallen substantially, and GHG emissions from the Ontario electricity sector were slashed by 75%, making this the largest carbon reduction project in North America.

Note that this feat was achieved despite a federal policy environment in Canada that is entirely hostile to climate action and has been moving the country in the opposite direction. Case in point: in the same period of the coal phase-out unfolded in Ontario, emissions from tar sands oil, a resource aggressively promoted by the federal Conservative government, soared by roughly the same amount that the Ontario coal phase-out saved.
... Read more ...

The new edition of the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI), which ranks the climate protection performance of the 58 largest  emitting countries worldwide, was released by Germanwatch and CAN Europe this week. The report shows worldwide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions continue to climb, and not a single country is on track to deliver their fare share of emission reductions.

But there are some rays of hope this year. There appears to be a slowdown in the rate of increase for global CO2 emissions. And China, the highest emitter on a national basis, improved its performance.

While no country performed well enough to earn a coveted top-3 ranking, Denmark led the league table, improving their score in nearly every sector. The UK took 5th place, up from 10th, due to an emissions decrease of 15% in the last 5 years plus improvements in energy efficiency.

But you won’t be surprised that Canada and Australia are the bottom ranked performers among industrialised countries, while Japan also dropped several notches. Australia is ranked 57th but its recent election produced a government that is backtracking even from there. Canada still shows no intention of moving forward with meaningful climate policy and remains at a humiliating 58th position.
... Read more ...

ECO nodded off during the plenary and heard this:

Dear Ministerial colleagues:

It gives me great pleasure to be here with you at this High Level Roundtable on Market Approaches for Enhanced Climate Action. I want to report to you now that after 18 months Australia’s carbon market is working well.

After the first 12 months the carbon price, supported by other policies, delivered 7% emissions reductions from covered sectors. The proportion of renewables in the energy mix surged by 23%. Inflation impacts were almost exactly as predicted at 0.7%.  Auctioning revenues funded support  for low and middle-income households, leaving them better off than before the reform. Scare campaigns saying that entire cities and industries would be wiped out proved to be mere fear-mongering.

Australia’s carbon price and limit on carbon pollution was of course designed to give a long-term signal to drive investment decisions towards low-carbon technologies and projects. The next step includes an assessment of increasing our ambition based on science and comparative action. To that end, our statutorily  independent Climate Change Authority has released a draft recommendation for Australia’s emissions reduction target, informed by work programs under the Convention.

The Authority is chaired by a former head of Australia’s central Reserve Bank, and its board includes Australia’s chief scientist and the former head of the Australian Industry Group.
... Read more ...

The First Place Fossil goes to India, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Malaysia, and China for proposing to delete the only reference to equity in para 9 of the ADP text.  Equity is key to the 2015 agreement and Parties must leave Warsaw with a clear understanding of how the ex ante review will be conducted.  We were shocked that with all the discussions here and in Bonn, equity did not yield more than a passing reference in the first version of the ADP text. The next iteration must expand and not ‘streamline’ references to equity.  To these members of the Like-Minded Group, we urge you to engage in the development of an ex ante review, rather than hovering over the delete button.

The Second Place Fossil goes to Australia, who along with some other developed countries is impeding progress towards setting up an international mechanism on loss and damage. Trying to keep out key text elements proposed by more than 130 developing countries, delaying negotiation progress through procedural manoeu- vres, and lacking a clear commitment to strong support provisions in the decision text is highly concerning.  Australia is the leader of those lacking constructive spirit.

We call on the other developed countries to work seriously for the needs of the most vulnerable countries and help in establishing an effective international mechanism on loss and damage here.

So here we are at the first ever finance ministerial.  With the ‘climate crunch’ rapidly exposing our economies to the risks of climate change and economic downturn, the stakes have been raised.  Parties have agreed on the need for action, put in place the institutions and frameworks, but there is one essential ingredient missing: finance.

Climate impacts are accelerating and multiplying as they rush through our global economic system.  We all know that the lack of finance is blocking progress – both in action on the ground and in  negotiating a stronger global climate  deal.

The UNFCCC is the central multilateral framework for tackling climate change, and finance is key to powering the process. The refusal of developed countries to make clear commitments on finance is sapping the life out of the negotiations, just as much as the failure of the same countries to reduce their emissions.

For all countries to work together, regardless of their status as developing and developed, promises  must be upheld.  The finance gap is blocking progress on REDD+, draining down the Adaptation Fund, threatening  to make the GCF another empty shell, and  providing the perfect justification for ensuring the threadbare ADP text remains devoid of content.
... Read more ...

You may have noticed the developed countries’ increasing  enthusiasm for having private finance substitute for their direct support as part of meeting the the promise of mobilizing US $100 billion per year by 2020.

This year, two US-hosted ministerial meetings and the pre-COP finance discussions focused almost exclusively on the role of private finance, whilst the glaring uncertainties around the provision of public finance were barely discussed. And the invitation letter from the COP presidency to today’s finance ministerial encourages civil society organisations to ‘present their own ideas on possible ways of mobilizing sources of finance in the private sector’ as if to silence calls on the urgent need to scale up public finance.

So you be the judge: are developed countries sliding back on their side of the bargain and using private finance to sidestep the need to increase public finance?  Today’s Finance Ministerial is an opportunity to highlight that whilst private finance has a role to play in the global climate transition, it is not a substitute for scaling up  crucially needed public support.

Public finance has a critical role to play in mitigation by helping to catalyse larger private investments,. The real need is estimated to exceed $1 trillion globally,  if we are to limit the temperature increase below 2 degrees Celsius.
... Read more ...