Categoría: Previous Issues Articles

Is this the summit where world leaders with a ghoulish climate record show up disguised as climate champions? But ECO also looks forward to hearing from some real champions:

In fact, in Scotland it was customary at Halloween to not get ‘treats’ for simply showing up in costume, one had to actually perform (songs). Please pay some respect to the local culture and deliver.

Many, in particular, rich nations and big emitters see the need for Loss and Damage finance as clearly as on a foggy Glasgow Halloween night without a lantern. So let ECO shine some light: COP26 must respond to climate-induced losses and damages across the world and deliver political recognition of the need for additional financial resources for this. Globally, we have entered the era of Loss and Damage. For ECO this will be the litmus test for COP26. Not responding to the realities of financing needs for Loss and Damage means failure.

Next, if you really want to frighten people this Halloween season, show them the newest IPCC Assessment Report. The UN Secretary-General rightly calls it “code red for humanity”. However, the G20, the biggest neighbours on the block, have not given much candy. They are promising good things but are capable of so much more.
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Since 2009, rich nations have over and over again promised to deliver US$100 billion per year by 2020. Yet over and over again, they have kept on failing. 12 years ago, the same year The Black Eyed Peas released I Got a Feeling, these wealthy nations set expectations and they failed. This is not someone else’s promise. This is their own promise. Developed countries love the world to acknowledge their efforts. They seek praise when they come to the venue. And every little thing they do, they just love to make a show of it. But you know what? They are not The Black Eyed Peas.

The song that developed countries have tried to get us to sing lacks tuning, rhythm and I got a feeling everyone but them is just tired of listening to it. Just last week, the Climate Finance Delivery Plan published by Canada and Germany showed that yet again governments have failed and will not achieve the $100bn goal until 2023, which actually means that we will only know in 2025 if their projection becomes reality. Not a word on adaptation. Nothing on loss and damage.

If developed countries want to make this the COP of enhanced action they first need to prove they know that global action only happens if all countries can participate.
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Like cramming the night before a big exam, the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has rushed out a last-minute net zero plan five days before this conference with no new policy and no accountability. 
This so-called plan is what Mr. Morrison proudly calls the ‘Australian way’. But anyone who has been to the last 25 COPs knows the Australian way is to block, destroy and delay negotiations and undermine global ambition.

 
Australia’s current plan has net zero ambition and will have net zero impact.

    
Instead the world can expect ever-growing coal and gas mining – maintaining Australia’s position as the third largest exporter of fossil fuels behind Russia and Saudi Arabia.

    
The success of these critical negotiations depends on climate laggards like Australia putting aside their tricks and committing to real action.

    
Australia is yet to commit to halving emissions this decade (as most other developed countries have done), has refused to sign up to the Global Methane Pledge, refuses to re-join the Green Climate Fund and has resisted calls to phase out coal power.

    
In fact, Australia has opened three new coalmines in the last month and there are at least 20 new coal projects and three new gas basins in the pipeline.


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The Brazilian delegation has offered to help clear up some confusion about its Article 6 positions. The delegation has noted that some negotiators and observers of limited imagination have had difficulty understanding how a country with an economy-wide emissions reduction target in its NDC could also have emissions reductions “outside its NDC”.
The Brazilian Head of Delegation admits that the concept can’t be easily explained or understood. However, the delegation and certain parts of Brazil’s government and economy are totally committed to the concept, especially because of its usefulness in justifying exemptions from inconvenient “corresponding adjustments” or CAs. While some argue that CAs are necessary to avoid double counting of emissions reductions and to make sure carbon accounting corresponds to how much carbon humans emit to the atmosphere, Brazil would like us to believe that nothing could be further from the truth.
The Head of Delegation has been insisting that Brazil is ready to be flexible in reaching agreement on Article 6 at COP26. He notes that Brazil has already shown considerable flexibility, including conceptual flexibility that challenges traditional and outdated notions of emissions accounting that hold that there is nothing “out there” beyond economy-wide targets in terms of emissions and emissions reductions.
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ECO knows, as you come into the venue this morning, you are preparing for a long night. While progress has been slow and negotiations have been frustrating, ECO still has hope for a positive outcome. To make things easier, we have outlined three issue areas that should be a top priority in reaching an acceptable COP decision tonight.

Ambition
When the final plenary closes this evening, ECO expects Parties to send clear political signals that you will address ambition in all three long-term goals of the Paris Agreement. This includes ambition in providing the necessary support to developing countries to address and act on the climate emergency. It means responding to the science and bringing your national climate plans in line with the 1.5ºC goal. And it entails bringing civil representatives to the table when discussing your national climate plans, so that we can all contribute to achieving the highest level of ambition possible. This ambition needs to be reflected in the enhanced NDCs by 2020, and the UNFCCC Secretariat needs to be given a mandate to produce a synthesis report well ahead of COP26 to assess the aggregate effect of the enhanced NDCs.

Delivering finance to address loss and damage
Will we again delay action and support for loss and damage?
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\Clearly, on climate action, and especially on loss and damage, the global situation and the political situation are sadly out of sync. Here at the COP we started with a great deal of optimism. However, a COP that was perceived as an opportunity to reshape and strengthen the WIM looks now to have been a false promise. The urgency that we are seeing, with unprecedented climate impacts and with marchers on the streets demanding action, has not resonated with those shaping the language in the negotiating rooms. For almost two weeks in the corridors of IFEMA, we have not seen the commitment from Parties that the global community is expecting. So, as we enter the final official day of negotiations, here are some suggestions for developed and developing countries.

Developed countries:

Really, you need to try harder. This COP was supposed to be the moment to demonstrate your solidarity with those on the frontline of the crisis that you caused, and address loss and damage. In these final days before the Paris Agreement becomes operational, you have the opportunity to show leadership and demonstrate that you really meant it when you said finance could be provided on a cooperative and facilitative basis for loss and damage.
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As Article 6 negotiations enter their final hours ECO has a simple and short message for ministers, HoDs, and negotiators: if you cannot agree to a good deal, the only way to uphold the integrity of the Paris Agreement, and multilateralism – is to take the time needed and continue discussions at COP26.

As you are surely tired of hearing from us, ECO wanted to provide a kind reminder of what is the bare minimum for a good deal: no double counting; no carryover of any Kyoto units; social and environmental safeguards, including for human rights; and overall mitigation of global emissions.

ECO trusts the Chilean presidency will show the strength and bravery to stand up for these principles. And to the other ministers, please also show some courage and strongly speak up for these non-negotiable red lines.

While ECO is frustrated and appalled by the Parties blocking environmental integrity under Article 6 — we are looking at you in particular, Brazil and Australia — ECO applauds all those who will stand up to the pressure to “get a deal”, and will prefer coming back to the table at the next session if a good deal cannot be found in Madrid.
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“Ea” is a Hawaiian word that is given many meanings; chief among them is “sovereignty”. For Hawaiians, sovereignty is a word that rings close to the heart. In 1843, King Kamehameha III proclaimed the return of our sovereignty through the Hawaiian Kingdom after a six-month occupation by the British: “Ua mau ke ea o ka ʻaina i ka pono,” loosely translating to: “the sovereignty of this land is perpetuated in righteousness.” It was only fifty years later that once again the word “ea” rang through the islands — only now it was a death knell.

In 1893, the last Queen of the Hawaiian Kingdom, Her Royal Majesty Liliʻuokalani, was overthrown in an American-backed military coup. The “ea” of the Hawaiian people was stolen. Though a majority of Indigenous Hawaiians petitioned for the restoration of the Hawaiian Kingdom, the passage of the 1898 Newlands Resolution led to the annexation of Hawaiʻi as a territory, pulling Hawaiʻi steps closer to her induction into the ever-expanding American empire.

The final stage in extinguishing Hawaiian sovereignty was meted out in 1959, when the Territory of Hawaiʻi was forced into statehood, officially adding it to the stars on the American flag. Sovereign no more, the Hawaiian people looked on with solemn eyes as their home was wrought from their hands by the cold gears of empire.
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Negotiations are falling apart, in a stark reflection of the political climate in Latin America. After several attempts at holding COP25 in Latin America, we have found ourselves back in Europe, hosting a Latin American Presidency in Spain.
 The agenda has polarized talks on common time frames, the transparency framework, and adaptation. Progress in the negotiations on market mechanisms has so far also been incredibly disappointing. 
Have Parties not learned enough from the failure of market responses in Chile to block loopholes?
Going into the final plenary, it seems progress on any of these crucial points is entirely out of the question; countries have acted entirely in their own interests, remaining deaf and unresponsive to the calls for action coming from outside.
The parallels are eerie between the social injustices and oppression of civil society happening in many parts of Latin America and the shrinking space for civil society found here at this COP. The voices of minorities, those who are most affected, least responsible, and fighting for their future, are being ignored, both in Latin American and in this COP.
The Escazú Agreement, which will provide the tools for establishing and protecting a dignified and sustainable environment and provide agency to disadvantaged Latin American communities, also gained little traction in Madrid.
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