Category: Previous Issues Articles

As the demand for water, land and food increases, and as climate change intensifies, wetlands are the most rapidly declining ecosystems in the world. When these natural buffers lose their ability to effectively store and regulate water, and support food production, people are deprived of their well-being, resulting in social tensions, conflict and sometimes human mobility. And, as both the IPCC and IPBES recognise, some wetlands also function as important carbon stores and natural defenses against flood damage. Wetland conservation and restoration therefore make perfect climate sense!

Although the exact relationship will be context specific, the nexus between the health of wetland ecosystems, human mobility and security deserves much greater attention in the context of climate adaptation, development and humanitarian strategies.

The WIM ExCom in 2016 called for more information on reasons for internal and cross-border migration, displacement and other forms of human mobility related to climate change impacts. At least 32 of the 69 submissions received referred to water hazards and stressors as drivers of human mobility, but only few of them referred to freshwater ecosystem degradation. In addition, little information was brought forward about how to address such hazards and degradations.

COP21 requested the ExCom to establish a task force to develop recommendations for integrated approaches to avert, minimize and address displacement related to the adverse impacts of climate change.
... Read more ...

Boum chAPAlakalaka Boum chAPAlakalaka  (cursive font)

Hey CMA, this is for you!

Address loss and damage as you all agreed to

8.2 are the words you should heed

To give WIM guidance and authority

Boum chAPAlakalaka Boum chAPAlakalaka (cursive font)

If you don’t want L&D under the APA

Just agree in Bonn to start the work at the next CMA

8.3, enhance action and support!

Through WIM and beyond, CMA1 start the work!

ECO is getting worried that the negotiators do not have a common view on the timeframe issue to make a decision on the Common Timeframes. How ironic is it to negotiate on common timeframes without a common timeframe for adopting a decision? ECO believes that a good timeframe for this decision to be made would be by December, when it should be concluded as part of the PAWP package in Katowice.

ECO looks forward to “sunny Bangkok” to the further discussions on the draft conclusion together with the CRP documents. Echoing AOSIS, African Group, LDC, and Brazil, ECO is a big fan of a shorter NDC implementation period. And therefore encourages countries to adopt the positive spirit outlined by China by considering the “advantages” of a 5 year commitment period. A common timeframe of NDC implementation between 2031 and 2035 would help us avoid locking in low levels of ambition, harness rapidly evolving real world opportunities, incentivize early action, and synchronize better with the broader Paris climate regime.

On the first day of week 2, ECO would like to help answer a crucial question: what actually makes climate finance predictable? Well, ECO definitely thinks that part of the answer is for countries to provide the relevant information to show how they intend to scale up climate finance. But predictability is also about creating a process that will help developing countries make the best use of this information and plan their climate actions accordingly.

As the second week of negotiations begins, ECO encourages negotiators and the co-chairs to focus on the things all Parties agree on. It seems, based on discussions on the SBI and on the APA, that all Parties agree on one thing: Developed countries should prepare robust and complete biennial submissions on the strategies and approaches. ECO encourages all developed countries to submit them as early as possible. However, countries still need to agree on how this information will be used and communicated in a way that builds trust among Parties.

ECO would like to propose some preliminary suggestions:

1. Parties could explore how the information related to predictability can inform important moments related to finance, such as the High Level Ministerials or the long term finance workshops.

Yesterday, 105 non-Party stakeholders and 210 Party representatives came together for the Talanoa Dialogue. Fighting negotiation fatigue, vitamin D deficiency, and hangovers from the CAN party the night before, these gallant individuals approached the dialogue with open hearts and minds. Luckily, ECO could follow along remotely – listening to all 7 work-streams addressing each of the 3 core questions of the Talanoa Dialogue: where are we, where do we want to go and how do we get there.

We heard about the desperate need to protect those most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change through enhanced mitigation ambition and greater support. We heard the frustrations at the pace and scale of action and support. We heard calls for action from all sectors of the community – governments, cities, businesses, scientists, indigenous peoples, youth, and civil society. We also heard inspiring stories of how challenges have been overcome, the actions that are occurring and of the willingness to do more. Finally, we heard a strong collective call for leaders to step up and turn this Dialogue into action at COP24.

ECO would like to congratulate all participants on their willingness to open up and share stories in the spirit of the Dialogue.
... Read more ...

ECO congratulates Mr. Michał Kurtyka on his nomination as the COP24 president and looks forward to the opportunities this week brings for Parties and civil society to meet the upcoming presidency. With high stakes for this year’s COP – both in relation to the level of ambition and to the implementation of the guidelines, the Polish leadership will be key to the success of COP.

Yet, one of the first steps taken by Poland during the process of organising this coming COP was the adoption of a law containing provisions seeking to curtail civil and political rights in relation to the event. This law authorises the police to violate the privacy of all COP-24 participants, as it usually would only be authorized to do for people suspected of crime. Additionally, the government imposed an exceptional ban on any spontaneous manifestation during the COP.

The issue is so serious that several UN institutions have questioned the Polish government as to whether the law passed by the Polish parliament and approved by the President was compatible with the obligation of the country in relation to respecting the rights of civil society.
ECO recognizes the importance for the Polish presidency to guarantee the security of all COP participants and trusts that the Polish government will adequately deliver this by building on their previous experiences in Poznan and Warsaw.
... Read more ...

For too long donor reports on climate finance have been based on a mishmash of approaches and some questionable methodologies.  This resulted in over-counting support in many donor reports.  Reaching an agreement on a new set of rules at COP24 presents a long overdue opportunity to address this and build confidence that the US$100 billion commitment will be met in a fair and robust way.

ECO congratulates the G77 on providing a comprehensive, clear, and constructive submission which can help pave the way for an agreement on accounting standards. Importantly, the submission includes a proposal that Parties shall report both the face value and the grant-equivalent of their climate finance, as well as proposing that only the grant-equivalent shall be counted towards climate finance obligations.

This is a major point because a high proportion of climate finance is provided in the form of loans, which most donors are counting at face value. According to Oxfam’s recent analysis of 2015-16 numbers, loans are estimated to be 2/3 of overall public climate finance. The fact that they are being counted at face value is overstating the net assistance to developing countries by around an estimated $20 b per year (2015-16).

The Third Biennial Reports shows that France provided only 7% of its climate finance as grants, Spain 18%, Germany 36%, and Japan somewhere between 8% and 28%.
... Read more ...

We can see you’re a little nervous, jittery even.

During the first week of negotiations, APA item #5 on the enhanced transparency framework discussed the facilitative and multilateral approach to progress and whether the registered observers would be allowed to contribute and provide added-value to the process by posing questions to Parties.

ECO believes it’s important to allow observers to engage in the process and raise questions during the enhanced transparency framework process. ECO thinks there should be a space for observer organizations to reflect on Party submissions to provide another perspective in order to further promote transparency and to incentivize implementation and overachievement.

It will be like a super short job interview: just a few quick questions. We know that job interviews can be nerve-wracking and uncomfortable. But, there’s really no reason to shy away from it. Especially if it’s an opportunity to have a conversation with civil society and get to know each other’s perspectives  in order to build a basis for a long-term relationship.

Let’s begin with a few quick questions on your transparency reports. You will have already gone through the technical expert review and addressed questions from the other Parties. So what’s so scary about a few additional questions? We just want to know that you’re up to the task of climate action!

Dear negotiators, did you know that the answer to some of your troubles can be found in nature? Nature-based solutions such as restoring mangrove buffers in degraded coastal areas or preserving peatlands have the potential to solve many of our climate and water challenges, reduce vulnerability, and help us adapt to a changing climate.
Why focus on water at the UNFCCC? Water is essential to life and to meeting both our mitigation and adaptation goals and, on the eve of the Talanoa Dialogue, it is timely to think of ambitious solutions for interconnected problems. Water demand is set to increase in all sectors and rising temperatures are projected to further increase pressure on limited water resources. Over 90% of NDCs with an adaptation component already reflect the understanding that water will continue to be one of the major challenges to adapting to climate change: Yet, actions taken now and in the next decade are essential to ensuring that climate change adaptation and mitigation measures as well as climate finance promote positive outcomes for water resources. ECO need only to look at statistics to see the urgency of this. We have already lost around 70% of wetlands worldwide due to human activities.
... Read more ...

The Talanoa Dialogue is all about getting creative on how to close the ambition gap and ECO is full of good ideas. But one idea doesn’t require much creativity at all – all it requires is common sense: we are in a hole and it is time to stop digging.

Climate leadership is being redefined and climate leaders can no longer get away with expanding or financing new fossil fuel production and infrastructure. With the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities and the need for a just transition in mind, there are a handful of wealthy producers that should be planning for a managed decline of existing oil, coal, and gas production to meet our shared climate goals.

Some Parties and institutions are farther ahead and have started tackling fossil fuel expansion, production, and its financing. From bans on exploration and expansion, to cutting off financing for oil, coal, and gas production – there is a growing list of policies that are starting to confront fossil fuels at the source. These first movers are recognizing that we need to tackle supply and demand if we are going to close the gap, and, much like the piano bar at the Hotel Maritim in days of yore, ECO suspects that this club will quickly become the place to be.
... Read more ...