It’s About People And Nature, Not Markets And Offsets

As we get into week 2, we continue to hear about the importance of Article 6. But ECO remains concerned that as Parties get bogged down in the technical details (which are important and ECO is happy to discuss them), they are forgetting about what’s really important and ultimately what it’s all about: people, a healthy planet and the ambition needed to keep warming below 1.5°C. 

Never fear, ECO is here to remind you. People and nature around the world have been negatively impacted by previous market mechanisms and seen their lands destroyed or taken without consent. Do you really want Paris Agreement implementation associated with human rights violations? Now is the time to take steps to prevent harm: By guaranteeing rights-based safeguards in the article 6 text; through meaningful participation and consultation with those impacted (including women, communities, workers, youth, persons with disabilities, Indigenous Peoples – don’t forget about FPIC … we could go on); and ensure there is an independent mechanism to redress potential harms. Rights-based and inclusive climate action is better climate action. And that includes at this COP. ECO has seen it work.   

ECO hears you say that this COP is about enabling us to stay on a path to 1.5°C. But weak rules on Article 6 will make that impossible. And remember, keeping below 1.5°C is about the people who are impacted by the growing climate crisis. A crisis that will only get worse if Parties don’t step up ambition and eliminate the loopholes that would allow Article 6 mechanisms to blast holes in the Paris Agreement. Environmental and ecosystem integrity requires ensuring no double counting, not allowing carry-over, and conservatively estimated truly additional emissions reductions/removals. The reason this matters is people. Counting reductions twice, failing to fully capture land-sector emissions, and including past emission reductions (pre-2020) cannot be allowed to meet post-2020 NDCs. It just doesn’t make sense in a world where we need ambitious domestic actions. This isn’t measured on a balance sheet, but in the lives and livelihoods of impacted people. We need an overall mitigation of global emissions (OMGE) not shifting of hot air and offsets around the world. We need holistic action that recognises the linkages between people, nature and successful climate action. ECO has seen the devastation caused by the climate crisis … the wildfires, droughts, floods, hurricanes, typhoons. And ECO’s seen the damage it’s done to people. 

So as you work to try to finalise Article 6 and get lost in the options and brackets, remember that it’s about people and nature! Failing to ensure ambition throughout these elements is failing the people around the world, failing the Paris Agreement, and putting 1.5°C further and further out of reach. And that is unacceptable.