One of the expected outcomes stated by many developed countries prior to the SBs in Bonn was operationalising the Santiago Network for Loss and Damage. Sadly, as we enter the final day, all the hard work remains. One of the critical obstacles to progress has been reaching agreement on the governance of the Santiago Network.
This difference of governance thinking reflects the more significant and divergent visions for the Santiago Network. The developed country vision is restricted by limited resources, while the developing country vision is expansive to establish a network that is commensurate with what is needed on the ground, to address loss and damage in communities already reeling from the climate emergency.
The developed countries want the Santiago Network to be overseen by the Executive Committee (ExCom) of the Warsaw International Mechanism (WIM), whereas the developing countries suggest an inclusive advisory board. That is to say, not a replication of the advisory boards already in existence for the Green Climate Fund, the Adaptation Fund or the CTCN, but an advisory body that learns from these and adopts their strengths while learning from their challenges.
So why can’t the ExCom provide the advisory function to the SNLD? ECO would like to highlight two significant limitations.
Mandate: the mandate of the ExCom is focused on the policy arm of the WIM. It guides the implementation of the functions of the WIM, although in almost 10 years has failed to deliver on the third mandate of the WIM.
Capacity: the ExCom is already super busy, its schedule is already consumed with routine meetings, coordination with other constituted bodies under the convention, as well as overseeing the work of the five expert groups. The ExCom meetings already have a full agenda and expecting them to oversee the Santiago Network in a timely and responsive fashion is frankly an impossibility.
We need to recall that in Madrid, following the review of the WIM, the Santiago Network was proposed because the ExCom was failing to deliver. It was failing on the third mandate of the WIM -– enhancing action and support, including finance, technology and capacity-building, to address loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change.
So developed countries, please do your homework and come to Sharm el-Sheikh with a more realistic plan. The people facing the consequences of irreversible impacts due to runaway climate change cannot wait any longer, and their cries of urgency should spur immediate action.