Category: Previous Issues Articles

The mandate of the two-day Suva Expert Dialogue starting today is “to explore … ways for facilitating the mobilization and securing of expertise, and enhancement of support, including finance, technology and capacity-building, for … loss and damage” However, it seems the gremlins got into the design phase and day one seems designed to distract us from clearly discussing finance. So, ECO has a few pointers on how to connect the structure with the mandate:

1. Risk Assessment:

• Go beyond risk and conduct post-event loss and damage assessments; including of need, capacities, and support required.
• Put vulnerable people at the center of all assessments.
• Assessment of risks and capacities, particularly related to slow onset events, must be done in line with mitigation pathways and temperature-rise scenarios.
• Comprehensive assessment must consider both the economic and non-economic nature of impacts. Addressing non-economic impacts still needs finance, as well as other kinds of measures (e.g. migration and displacement).
• Needs and capacity assessment of research and implementation institutions in developing countries need to be conducted.
• Comprehensive risk assessment of vulnerable people, critical ecosystems, and biodiversity are crucial.

2. Risk Reduction:

• Stopping climate change is the best and adaptation the second-best strategy for risk reduction, but ECO knows that even then, substantial residual risks remain.

While engaging in the Suva Dialogue on a range of approaches to raise support and finance for loss and damage action in developing countries, ECO is sure Parties will already be thinking “What next?”

Yes, the review of the Warsaw International Mechanism is already coming up on the horizon. It will happen in 2019 and, in ECO’s view, the WIM-review should be based on a clear presentation of options to move forward, so that the COP can take decisions at its 25^th meeting which results in a rapid scaling-up of finance and support available towards at least US$50 billion by 2022.

Of course, some elements of the way forward have already been agreed. The UNFCCC Secretariat will prepare a report on the meeting, and the Executive Committee of the WIM will use this report in its next session in September. One objective of the ExCom’s discussion will be to define the scope of the technical paper on sources of finance for loss and damage which the Secretariat will prepare in the first half of 2019 feeding into the review. As this should be available in time for the June SB session, ECO likes the idea of already agreeing to hold another Suva Dialogue next summer, to allow for focused discussions on the review.
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Adopting the Enhanced Transparency Framework is quite a task. ECO sees NDC guidelines, including features and accounting; cooperation and transfers of mitigation outcomes; and the transparency framework as all being intricately connected. Just as your headphones get tangled when thrown haphazardly into your backpack, before you can really use them again, it is important to take the time to untangle the wires.

We understand that it can be dizzying trying to keep up with where the transparency conversation is at, but transparency is necessary to understand financial flows and to track progress on mitigation action.

Focusing on accounting for NDCs, for example, requires clear rules about how this is done.

Rules on how this should be done are necessary to ensure that this accounting framework truly works.

First, we need a clear understanding of what is included in a country’s climate plan and what is not. NDC guidance can provide clarity on many things: mitigation, adaptation, provision of support, and how the NDC contributes to a country’s sustainable development and trajectory to 1.5°C.

Second, including a centralized accounting registry in the guidance would provide an overview of global action all housed in one place, thereby ensuring (and supporting our favourite acronym) Clarity, Transparency and Understanding (CTU) in tracking progress towards achieving NDCs.
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While trying to find its way around the new outfit of the UNFCCC website in vain, ECO found some comfort and encouragement to see so many “inputs” uploaded on the Talanoa Dialogue’s website (keep them coming!). ECO thinks this is a great opportunity for building trust and enhancing ambition in NDCs by 2020, and both the number and the content of inputs clearly show Parties’ and Non-Party Stakeholders’ (NPS) commitment to engage in the Dialogue. There are four official meeting slots for Talanoa Dialogue and ECO is particularly looking forward to seeing how the Sunday “Talanoa Groups” will go. The proposed format is new and ECO hopes that the new model provides the needed enthusiasm for a dialogue on how to enhance ambition. Some of us from civil society will be there to tell our stories but not all of us have access to the discussion. ECO is thus interested in how the discussion will be captured in the three reports on 8 May and the summary report for the closing session. It would be useful to have at least two pieces of information in the summary: (1) The information about dialogues organized by Parties and NPSs on national and regional levels.
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The Koronivia joint work on agriculture has just been launched and ECO would like to share a few tricks with the delegates on how to make it a piece of cake!

It is time for an ambitious dessert!

• With the recently published IPBES report on biodiversity and two upcoming IPCC reports on 1.5°C and Land, we couldn’t dream of better timing to work on agriculture in the context of climate change.

Should Koronivia be a cupcake or a tiered cake?

• Deciding first what type of cake you’re making is fundamental. Make sure you agree on clear objectives, outcomes, and a calendar, before stirring your ingredients and diving into details.

The more, the merrier!

• Balanced participation is key to a successful session, and smallholder farmers, along with broader civil society, should be fairly represented during the processes and meetings of the Koronivia joint work on agriculture. Don’t forget that CAN member organisations can add a particularly rich flavour of expertise.

The dos and don’ts to avoid unwanted surprises in the oven!

• Sustainable criteria to guide action on agriculture are adefinite must, and could serve to put national contributions, policies and climate finance on the right path to a 1.5°C world.

ECO shares the frustration expressed by many Parties about the glacial pace of ratifications of the Doha Amendment, which would allow the 2nd commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol (KP2), covering the period of 2013-2020, to enter into force. In case it has escaped anyone’s notice, this covers the period that we’re currently in…

Only 33 more countries need to ratify in order to bring the Doha Amendments and KP2 into force. ECO wonders, where will we find those 33 countries? One good place to start should be with those countries and groups that express the greatest concern about the lack of ratification. The table below analyzes the number and percentage of negotiating group members who have yet to ratify KP2.

ECO wonders which country will step forward next…?

Dear delegates,
ECO is glad to see you back and wanted to share some reflections with you on what needs to be done in 2018. It seemed COP23 left you exhausted, unhappy over things that usually wouldn’t bother you and worried whether you can get it all done. Rest assured, all these feelings are normal during the technical phase of these negotiations. You seem to have the Paris Blues.
Paris Blues? Yes, delivering the Paris Agreement was a huge life changing experience with a lot of attention and support, particularly from your Ministers and even Heads of State. The first year after Paris went by in a hormone rush – the spirit of Paris on steroids. Collectively carried by a feeling of accomplishment and trust, you even managed to overcome the orange fever that threatened the entire Agreement before its first birthday. Now reality kicks in; attention has shifted to other issues and you are the ones that must do the heavy lifting to keep Paris alive by delivering on the implementation guidelines, the ambition mechanism, and other key issues in 2018.
But it can be done! The Paris Blues is a condition that can be treated. Here are some tips for SB48 to get in shape and achieve your 2018 goals:
a.
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On the way to the Bonn conference center, ECO found it challenging to pin down climate finance in the maze of the 2018 negotiations. Indeed, ECO heard that there is no less than 7 priorities that negotiators will have to deal with by the end of the year: modalities for the accounting of climate finance, Article 9.5, US$100 billion goal, loss and damage finance, GCF and GEF replenishments, Adaptation Fund and reorientation of financial flows (Article 2.1.c).

Finance is crucial, as substantial progress on this issue would help create an enabling environment to achieve robust outcomes by COP24. Given the complexity and importance of the issue, we are happy to suggest some ways to build trust and move ahead on climate finance on route towards COP24:

Keep your (100bn) promise. Developed countries should use all opportunities in 2018  to send the clear signal that the road towards the $100 billion commitment will be reached by 2020. In addition to the biennial assessment to be published by COP24, donor countries could enhance confidence by submitting well ahead of COP24 their strategies and approaches to show how they intend to scale up their financial support by 2020, with a specific focus on scaling up adaptation finance.
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Until 2020, the Kyoto Protocol is the world’s governments’ main political instrument to cut emissions and close the mitigation gap. At the moment we are already in its second commitment period (KP2), implemented through the Doha amendments, covering the period until 2020, and ensuring continuous legally binding climate action. But only 111 Parties have ratified it so far — and we need 33 more for it to enter into force.

Only if 144, i.e. 3/4 of the 192 Parties to the Kyoto Protocol ratify it in the coming months, will KP2 enter into force this year. If that happens we do not have to spend the pre-2020 stocktake at COP24 wondering why an agreement that was reached in 2012 has still not entered into force; and can instead focus on crucial questions of implementation. Which parties are on track to deliver on their pre-2020 commitments and which are not (whether they are under the KP2 or not)? What lessons can we learn? How can we avoid this gap in the future?

It would also make a difference for that pretty important Talanoa Dialogue Q&A we are going to have at COP24. It sure would be nice to be able to answer the first question: “Where are we?”
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2018 will be the year of the Talanoa dialogue. ECO is encouraged to see the design of the dialogue take shape and thinks the presidencies’ design is fit for purpose. But ECO also wants to emphasize a few important points.

Parties made good progress in finding a solution to the question of how to deal with pre-2020 by adding a pre-2020 stocktake to COP24 and COP25. However, they must be mindful of achieving appropriate balance between this proposed new pre-2020 stocktake and the political phase of the Talanoa dialogue process at COP24.

Increased NDC ambition and stronger pre-2020 action and support are needed to fulfill the Paris promise. Pre-2020 is important, especially in the context of “Where are we?” and to make the best of the short time available. But we also need the Talanoa Dialogue to provide relevant forward-looking information and political momentum towards preparing the NDCs that Parties will communicate by 2020 (per paragraphs 23 and 24 of 1/CP.21), in other words those for the 2026 to 2030 period. Those NDCs must be more ambitious/bold than what’s currently on the table, lest 1.5°C slips out of our hands.

ECO likes the idea to have both Fijian and Polish presidencies preside over the Talanoa process from start to finish – this is a great way of ensuring consistency and to allow the process to start early.
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