CAN INTERVENTION: SBSTA CLOSING PLENARY, COP26

November 2021

Globally, We have entered the era of loss and damage and therefore feel we must repeat that COP26 must

  • Decide to provide sufficient and needs-based Loss and Damage finance, in addition to the 100bn dollars per year. Loss and Damage finance must also be included in the post-2025 climate finance target.
  • Establish a process to identify the scale of funding needed to address Loss and Damage as well as suitable mechanisms to deliver the finance to developing countries. The outcome must be presented at COP27.
  • Support developing countries in enabling national level systems to distribute Loss and Damage finance to ensure country ownership, gender responsiveness and self-determination. This could be facilitated by the fully operationalized Santiago Network for Loss and Damage.

In addition, COP26 needs to deliver on the 1.5-degree limit. To this end, the cover decision of COP26 must therefore

  • Recognize the importance to limit warming to 1.5C
  • Recognize relevant scientific reports assessing the emissions gap & the urgency of stronger action to limit global warming to 1.5C
  • Commit to raising mitigation ambition for 2030 emissions reductions
  • Commit to phase out fossil fuels
  • And mandate the UNFCCC Secretariat to produce an updated annual NDC synthesis report, to be released prior to COP27 and COP28

With regard to Article 6, the same troubling loopholes remain and would mean double counting and hot air carried over from the pre-Paris period. We urge the Parties to require corresponding adjustments whether inside or outside of NDC scope, and no carryover of Kyoto Protocol units to ensure environmental integrity. We also urge parties to include strong Human Rights and Indigenous Peoples and social safeguards in the Article 6 rules.

Secondly, we urge parties to finalize the transparency rules with common reporting tables and built-in flexibility and the necessary capacity building and support. Finally, CAN expresses strong concerns on the issue of inclusivity at this COP. We travelled to this COP in order to participate meaningfully and support negotiations towards ambitious outcomes. However, our participation has been constrained since the first day of the COP by a range of restrictions – many of them unprecedented and not related to the COVID situation. The UK presidency must use the next five days to ensure that the voices of civil society and indigenous peoples representatives are heard in the negotiations.