Category: Previous Issues Articles

The Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss and Damage (WIM) celebrated its fifth birthday yesterday. On such an auspicious occasion, let’s look back on its achievements.

The WIM was set up with three elements to its mandate: i) enhance understanding; ii) facilitate coordination; iii) enhance action and support (aka finance). It’s made some gains on the first two — reaching out to other bodies and establishing a Taskforce on Displacement. But as for enhancing or mobilising finance, the WIM has been missing in action.

It is apparent that developed countries have been scared of finance for loss and damage — they’ve spent years ensuring that negotiations talk about finance as little as possible and in the smallest of rooms. When finance was discussed, it was almost entirely about insurance for extreme events. Delegates, please note: making vulnerable countries pay insurance premiums is NOT climate finance! Nor, for that matter, is making them take out loans to recover from increasingly strong and frequent hurricanes propelled by warming oceans from ever-rising GHG emissions. Enough!

It is well past time to discuss finance to address loss and damage. The WIM needs to be fully operationalised into a mechanism that can channel funding at scale to vulnerable countries.

ECO overheard on several occasions — even at the plenary yesterday — some alarming conversations between negotiators and Ministers. After three years, there still seems to be some confusion of two very different notions of “finance” in the context of climate ambition!

Yesterday, a handful of Ministers from developed and developing countries met in Plenary Śląsk to discuss the need for enhanced action pre-2020. This is, of course, because the levels of climate action and emissions reductions until now have been, and continue to be, woefully inadequate. The same can be said about finance and other support to developing countries.

Thankfully, it is not too late to make a difference – to close the gap and avoid carrying this burden into the future, as has clearly been stated by several developing countries during the plenary discussion. As the IPCC Special Report on 1.5°C makes abundantly clear, every year, every gigatonne of emissions, every action, and every fraction of a degree makes a difference.

We hope the discussions yesterday contribute to urgent efforts to scale up action, as well as reinforcing the message from the IPCC report as to what is needed to get on track to staying below 1.5°C degrees.

Importantly, the outcomes of this crucial high-level meeting should be captured in a COP24 decision, along with COP decisions from ministerial discussions on finance and on the Talanoa Dialogue. Together, these will contribute to the balanced package we all want.

ECO considers some elements critically important, and thinks these should be captured in the outputs of this stocktake and related COP decisions, such as:

• Recognition of climate action shortfalls in the pre-2020 period – particularly from developed countries, and calling on them to meet and exceed targets ahead of 2020;
• The need for scaling-up finance and support, including through the Green Climate Fund in – meeting the $100 billion commitment with rigorous accounting methods agreed by all Parties;
• A call for cooperative action between countries – e.g.

ECO hopes that Ministers had smooth travels, lots of rest and have now settled down in Katowice ready to deliver strong messages during the High-Level segment taking place today and tomorrow. If Ministers are looking for further inspiration, ECO is happy to help. Yesterday was International Human Rights’ Day. So, what if, today, Ministers decided to be disruptive and state loud and clear that every day should be Human Rights Day?

Why? Because climate change severely affects the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people around the world, EVERY SINGLE DAY. And if you believe the IPCC Special 1.5°C report — i.e. if you have any common sense or humanity — you know this will only get worse. Countries must urgently scale up meaningful climate action; action that not only addresses climate change, but also reduces inequalities and empowers individuals and communities.

So what can Ministers do? Statements are about presenting a vision. So what about using this opportunity to reaffirm the Paris vision — the one where Parties committed to respect and promote human rights, food security, rights of indigenous peoples, gender equality, public participation, ecosystem integrity, intergenerational equity and just transition? What could be a better vision than one for the action needed to keep global temperature rise below 1.5°C?

Acronym’s abound in the UNFCCC process, and here’s another one…

O-M-G-E stands for “overall mitigation in global emissions.” Say what?! The mechanism referred to in Article 6.4(d) of the Paris Agreement: “shall aim to deliver an overall mitigation in global emissions.” Yes, it’s wonky. So, let us try again: This is a mandate to reflect on the hard lessons learned from the Clean Development Mechanism and for the Paris Agreement to go beyond offsetting. This is just what the planet needs as it is still reeling from the conclusions of the IPCC Special Report on 1.5°C. OMGE is a major opportunity that no negotiator should stand against.

We can do one better: if paired with a levy for share of proceeds for adaptation, requiring OMGE through “automatic cancellation” or “discounting” offers a one-two punch against climate change.

Some Parties get it already: OMGE is only achieved when a fixed percentage of emissions reductions is set aside and not used by anyone towards any target. In other words, these emissions reductions are for the greater benefit of the atmosphere, not for a specific entity or country.

We have heard several proposals during the week on how to achieve this. Unfortunately, some countries have foolishly suggested that a market will miraculously in itself deliver overall mitigation in global emissions.

FIRST PLACE: AUSTRIA

It looks like we have some new bad boys in town!

Now, they aren’t the usual suspects, but that doesn’t mean they are well behaved. So much so, that they may be getting a bit of coal in their stockings this Christmas.

Today’s first place Fossil goes to Austria! The EU Council — under the lead of the Austrian presidency — wants to subsidise existing and new coal plants for the next 17 years, until 2035! Unfortunately, this is not the kind of leadership we are looking for, Austria.

The so-called “capacity mechanisms” are used as backdoor subsidies for the most uneconomic and polluting power plants. These subsidies add EUR €58 billion to energy bills of EU citizens for funding coal, gas and nuclear. Coal power plants receive the vast majority of it, and polluters plan to build new coal plants in the EU, thanks to these subsidies.

Austria leads the EU Member States in these negotiations — which could end subsidies to coal. Instead, it has chosen to please coal laggards like Poland, Greece and Bulgaria, rather than listen to progressive Member States and put an end to subsidies for coal.

Those still waiting for a happy ending … sorry.

ECO “welcomes” the majority of Parties who stood up for “welcoming” the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C in the SBSTA plenary on Saturday. Because of objections from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the USA and Russia, the draft text for SBSTA L.19 document merely says Parties “take note of the IPCC SR 1.5” instead of “welcome the IPCC report”. When it was presented at SBSTA plenary, starting from Maldives on behalf of AOSIS, AILAC, EIG, LDC, Costa Rica, Canada, Norway, EU, Belize, Tuvalu and many others stood up and voiced strongly a wish to bring back “welcome”. St. Kitts and Nevis got a big round of applause for their intervention. As there was no consensus, the matter now is in the hands of the COP Presidency.

ECO knows that the scientific findings are there no matter how hard these four countries try to ignore them. At the same time ECO was really encouraged to see such a huge majority of Parties taking the findings of the IPCC SR 1.5 report to heart. ECO strongly urges all Parties to let the findings be reflected by raising their level of ambition and in the Paris Agreement Rulebook.

ECO encourages the Presidency to assign a Ministerial Pair to facilitate discussions on a COP24 ambition decision that includes the reference to the IPCC 1.5°C report, the outcomes of the Talanoa Dialogue, NDC updates and enhancement by 2020, Pre-2020 as well as the Means of Implementation.

Parties, let us welcome the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of SR 1.5°C!