Category: Previous Issues Articles

ECO loves multilateralism, but sometimes it feels a bit like Parties are spoiled children that never get told off. To review Parties’ cooperative approaches under article 6.2, Parties are currently proposing that the review process shall be “facilitative, [non-intrusive,] non-punitive, respectful of national sovereignty and avoid placing undue burden on participating Parties”.

With all those caveats, ECO wonders what the point is of even having a review. Especially since some Parties are also fighting to keep the right to designate any information as “confidential”, as ECO highlighted yesterday.

Do you know what *is* intrusive, punitive and places a major burden on Parties? Climate change. And it’s time that the UNFCCC process starts setting up rules that can bite and have real impact. We don’t need another facilitative and non-punitive exchange between experts and Parties. We need a stringent review that will verify whether Parties who trade mitigation outcomes are actually delivering real impact, or just trading hot air and patting themselves on the back for it.

Information under article 6 should be public, complete, and all cooperative approaches must deliver real climate action. A strict review process needs to be established to deliver this.

For all their faults, the CDM, the 6.4 mechanism, and even the voluntary carbon markets do require independent and binding checks of the mitigation activities that lead to the generation of tradable units.
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ECO fails to understand why is it that humans, as rational and self-interested creatures, want to continue to dig and drill in the ground for energy when the most abundant and economically sound choices are available above the ground, for free, and come with myriad benefits.
A decade or so back, fossil fuels made some economic sense because the levelized cost of energy from fossil fuel sources was significantly cheaper than renewables. But now, especially for wind and solar, the cost is on par or even cheaper than fossils, and that’s before we look at the social costs and impacts they have on our health, well-being, and most importantly our climate. ECO is perplexed as to why countries would want to support some vested interests just want to get richer and richer at the expense of the world. 
Fossil fuel companies, including some of the world’s biggest oil and gas firms who claim to support the Paris Agreement goal of keeping global warming below the 1.5°C threshold, are likely to generate profits (not revenues!) of about US$250billion in 2022. Even more outrageous is that they are set to spend almost $1trillion in the next eight years on new gas and oil mining, all while being fully aware that any new investment in fossil fuels will push the world irrevocably over 1.5°C and have severe repercussions on the climate and our lives. 
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ECO is aware that Sharm El-Sheikh is not your best pick for seeing Egyptian antiques, but we have nonetheless found a few old monuments at the site of COP27. One of them is the huge Tomb of the Bolsonaro Government, a 300 square meter empty ruin of a kingdom that should never have been. Right nearby, the smaller Mastaba of the Amazonian Governors looks slightly more modern, but it is actually promoting very ancient ideas – such as not ending deforestation by 2030.

After hinting in Paris at zero illegal deforestation by 2020, a target that was never achieved, some Brazilian Amazon states are now not only backtracking in their pledges, but actually proposing a destruction target: reducing rainforest clear-cutting to 50% by 2035, or to 80% by 2030 in the case of heavily deforested Mato Grosso. The state of Pará is aiming at having “only” 1,300 km2 of forests destroyed every year by 2035 (nearly half the area of Cairo). The question is whether there will be anything left to cut down so far in the future.

Dear governors, ECO is confused: as a country, Brazil has already committed in Glasgow to zero deforestation by 2030. Incoming president Lula has also repeatedly said that he will strive for zero deforestation.
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A long time ago, even longer than the weeks before COP27, the famous pyramids of Egypt were built. ECO heard that the tips of the biggest pyramids were covered in gold and shone brightly – so should your cover decision delegates. By the way, no one covered the tip in oil or coal, which makes sense as the place for all fossil fuels, including gas, is in the ground. ECO has the main modules and bricks to build your pyramid.

Brick one: The climate crisis is a human rights crisis
Remember our newly minted right via the UN General Assembly resolution 76/300 and Human Rights Council resolution 48/13 recognizing the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, the promotion of which requires the full implementation of the multilateral environmental agreements under the principles of international environmental law.

Brick two: Deliver on Loss and Damage – and do so at this conference, no need to take as long as building the pyramids did
Delegates, it is time to establish a new Loss & Damage Finance Facility to address this gap as an operating entity under the UNFCCC Financial Mechanism through 1/CP27 and 1/CMA4 decisions. Don’t forget to establish the advisory board of the Santiago Network as a constituted body to enable it to address technical and capacity-building needs to address Loss & Damage on the ground.
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ECO is pleased to see that a draft text with options for the mitigation work programme was issued by co-facilitators. It is great to start discussing from a concrete basis, but there are still too many options. We are closely following your efforts (well, at least from a few of you) to try to refine them. Hang in there friends, this is important for all the peoples and ecosystems of the world and also for your children and grandchildren. It’s our last best chance to keep 1.5 within reach; we can’t rely only on the GST to do that. We know you are as tired as we are and we want to help your work by pointing out what we like and what we don’t like in the current text. Tiredness should not be an excuse not to pay attention to the potential and risks of the options on the table.

Like:

• Mentions CBDR-RC, equity and fair shares; music to our ears!!!!
• Stressing the urgency to peak at the latest by 2025
• Just transitions that promote sustainable development and the eradication of poverty
• Importance of being informed by the best available science
• Fair and equitable distribution of the carbon budget
• NDC implementation and investment strategies: very interesting, getting to real action.

Let’s imagine that you are building a ship. We won’t call it Titanic because we know how that ended. But you know there are increasingly heavy seas ahead, icebergs and peril aplenty. Your ship has the finest architects, engineers and crew and the best wishes of the whole world. Let’s call it the good ship Adaptation and you are the parties talking about her first voyage. Here are ECO’s tips for a successful trip:
Leave no one behind. This means putting the most vulnerable at the head of the queue. Others more able will follow.
Listen of the forecasts to inform your route, including those local and Indigenous people who know the seas best, and have sailed many times before
Have the same wise people pilot the ship when in their waters
Make sure you have an ample and fairly-sourced supply for your whole journey, including reserve to respond to unpredictable events. Spread your resources equally across the ship so as not to tip it over,
Make sure you know where you are bound and that you will know when you get there
Chart your progress, check your bearings, and be prepared to alter course when needed.

Of course, the Global Goal on Adaptation is not a ship, nor a GlaSS bottomed boat.
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ECO is concerned about the executive committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism, the ExCom. It seems to be suddenly waking up from a long slumber and is confused about its role. It was established in 2013 at COP19 in Warsaw and has progressed at a snail’s pace since then. Its inability to establish an Expert Group on Action and Support until 2020 is a case in point. Despite this, the ExCom has done excellent work under its first two mandates, enhancing knowledge and strengthening dialogue, coordination, coherence and synergies. But it has failed on its third mandate, the mandate that ECO considers the most important: enhancing action and support, including finance, technology and capacity building, to address loss and damage.

The ExCom has been working hard and has a very important function as the executive committee of the WIM, but it cannot do everything. It’s like Batman without Robin: Robin, in this case, being the Advisory Board of the Santiago Network. The ExCom is a political body that leads, but the SNLD is meant to be the operational body that gets the work done. Its approach is inclusive; It is accountable to the UNFCCC for delivering its work, and it is led by developing countries to ensure that its efforts are targeted where they are needed the most and reaches the people currently being overlooked by the current international system.
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With consultations on loss and damage nearing half-time here in sunny Sharm el-Sheikh, ECO is disappointed to report that — despite the excessive air-conditioning — meeting rooms have been full of little more than hot air.
In terms of the process, things have been difficult. Loss and Damage is a critical issue for this COP, yet room sizes have simply been too small, meaning that observers — and even parties — got kicked out of consultations today. ECO thanks the EU representative for recognising the role of civil society in pushing the loss and damage agenda, and for asking for an overflow room for observers.
In terms of substance, familiar battle lines are being drawn. G77+China and AOSIS have clear positions and are holding their lines. Any attempts to sow divisions have so far been unsuccessful.

Indeed, the first of their asks seems to have been achieved: recognition of the loss and damage finance gap. As the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda said on Tuesday, this should not be perceived as a controversial issue.
There is more debate on the need for a new loss and damage financing facility, that this funding should be new and additional, and precisely what should be agreed at this COP.
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Good news from our GST sports correspondent, the GST half time at COP27 ended quite positively. ECO wants to thank the co-facilitators of the technical dialog for conducting this session with improvements since Bonn. The dialogue was very inclusive and allowed interactive discussions. ECO can also report that Parties (players) are motivated to kick-off the second half!
The GST second half during the year 2023 is crucial and will be more challenging: our football team has to score goals by defining the political outcomes of this first GST.

As a strong motivated referee who was on the field during the entire game thus far, ECO also wants to highlight the following:

RED CARDS SHOULD BE GIVEN FOR FALSE SOLUTIONS: ECO was alarmed to hear some statements during the GST roundtables and world café station. The mandate of the Global Stocktake is to rely on the best science available. It is not about defending political and economic priorities over what climate science is telling us, especially the IPCC. ECO cannot hear, cannot accept, in this UNFCCC context, statements arguing to develop solutions with high risks to human rights or those that are unproven at scale, and that prolong fossil fuel dependency. These false solutions go against the rules and principles of the Global Stocktake being people centred.
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A dozen of the world’s largest agricultural commodity trading companies promised in Glasgow to deliver a high ambition roadmap to 1.5°C for the agri-commodity sector by COP27. The Roadmap was published on the 7th by TFA and the WEF, but very discreetly announced at the Forest and Climate Leader Partnership.

No wonder, as preliminary information on its content already indicated that there was a dramatic lack of ambition, and has generated negative reactions from the UK and US governments. More than 80 Brazilian and global NGOs also signed a Manifesto asking for the immediate end of all commodity-related deforestation and conversion.

This matters a lot, as the soy, beef and palm oil sectors alone are responsible for about half of all agricultural land-conversion related GHG emissions, and these few companies together represent a dominant share of all forest and ecosystem-risk commodities´ trade. Recent studies highlight the urgency of eliminating commodity-driven deforestation and conversion, for the agricultural sector to do its fair share of contributions to a 1.5°C pathway.

The “Agriculture Sector Roadmap To 1.5°C” published on Monday falls far short. Soy-related deforestation will be able to continue at least until 2025, and legal savannah conversion forever. Cattle will also be able to encroach on forests and savannahs in the foreseeable future, setting their ambition only to achieve legal compliance.
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