Categoría: Previous Issues Articles

Still don’t grasp what the GAP is all about? What if we tell you that advancing gender mandates will give a real boost to your climate action?

Parties have just spent the last 4 days reviewing what has been achieved under the Gender Action Plan (GAP) so far and guess what? Implementing the GAP is not so scary after all. The gender workshop organized by the UNFCCC Secretariat Gender Team under its mandate, engaged all participants in a positive spirit thanks to fruitful experience sharing. Successful stories were presented by Finland, Tonga, and Bolivia. For instance, did you know that Chile engaged in a national gender-diagnostic and a targeted capacity building process in the energy, agriculture and fishing sectors to adopt a gender approach in its mitigation actions?

We also listened to the Adaptation Committee, CTCN, IPCC, PCCB, GCF, and WIM ExCom as they gave us the latest update on how they integrate gender equality in their actions. It’s clear, gender is relevant in all articles of the Paris Agreement: UNFCCC constituted bodies have done their homework; now Parties, it’s up to you!

We want a comprehensive, targeted and resourced GAP, as part of a renewed, long-term Lima Work Programme (LWP): this is critical to strengthen gender-responsive and human rights-based climate policy.
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Are you also a Head of State stressing out about what to pack for the climate summit in September? Fear not. ECO has everything you need to know on this year’s most important trends. As you know Secretary General António Guterres has asked Heads of State not to bring speeches but to bring action plans in line with 1.5 ºC. But ECO realises that some countries might not remember what ambitious action looks like. So, as a special service for those countries and for the viewing pleasure of the rest of you, ECO has today decided to bring the following picture as our centrefold:

This very fetching curve is bound to become a hit in New York this autumn. What you’re looking at is a depiction of the brand-new 70% reduction target that the incoming Danish government announced last night. Notice the clean lines, plummeting curves and great timing, just beautiful.

First to catch ECO’ eyes is how the 70% target in 2030 signifies a clear progression from previous efforts, especially the last few years. Secondly, extend the curve. Extend it all the way to where it will touch the x-axis. Notice that the intersection point will be in ca 2040.
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It is tough to be the new kid on the block, especially when you are trying to do things differently than those who have been around the block a couple of times. Especially when those other guys still want to stick around — even though they were invited to the block party only for a little while — and are playing by a different set of rules.

ECO has been reminded of this during the past few weeks with the Green Climate Fund (GCF) seeking its first formal replenishment this year, while the Climate Investment Funds (CIFs) are pondering recapitalization at the same time. The CIFs were set up 10 years ago to be temporary players in the block party of multilateral climate finance, with the expectation that they would eventually gracefully move out of the way (aka “sunset”). This was supposed to happen once the GCF had shown that it is ready to fulfill its birthright — namely to be the main kid on the block for helping developing countries implement climate actions and raise their ambition under the Paris Agreement. Some 102 approved projects and programs worth USD 5 billion later, there can be no doubt that the GCF is ready to do just that.
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Did you know ECO was here before the smoothie bar?

Smoothie machines are great. You get a blender and insert let’s say apples and oranges and you could try to get a smoothie… wait… what?? Would you really drink a smoothie made of apples and oranges? We all know that does not make a good mix. If you think about it, apples and oranges are normally placed in separated baskets when you go to a store. And at the end of the day, just like you can’t compare loans and grants, you don’t mix apples and oranges.

ECO has been actively observing the discussions on transparency of support, particularly those linked to the adoption of the common tabular format of the Enhanced Transparency Framework agreed in Katowice (CTF). This CTF aims to enhance trust and make room for the new types of information that countries agreed on — support provided, mobilized (for contributor countries), received and needed (for developing countries).

ECO listened carefully and wonders if this warm weather and the accumulated number of smoothies negotiators have had lately to quench their thirst has inspired them to come to the room with very interesting and creative proposals to make the best out of this CTF.
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ECO recognizes that Pacific Island Countries (PICs) are on the frontlines of climate change, already facing impacts which pose an existential threat to their communities. This is their message to you delegates:

The Pacific deserves more than just to survive – we deserve to thrive. We are looking to you, delegates, for solidarity and the courage to act.

You can help to preserve the incredible wealth of this region’s languages which hold the stories and histories of thousands of islands, and millions of people whose culture, identity and traditional knowledge are a reflection of resilience, determination and courage in the face of the climate crisis.

These histories and cultures and our very identities are rooted in our homes, our islands and our oceans. Now, we stand to lose them all because of the current climate crisis – a crisis which we can still avert. A crisis which is causing many to leave our ancestral homes. Displacement and migration must be our last resort, and efforts to mitigate and transition to renewable energy should continue in order to minimize future impacts. However, if we are forced to move or choose to do so because of climate change, we should be able to do so safely and with dignity.
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Sitting in a recent informal consultation, ECO had an unwelcome flashback to Bible classes. The old story of Lot’s wife* looking back and being turned into a pillar of salt.

What inspired this unwelcome flashback? That would be the equally unwelcome assertion that the Review of the Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss & Damage (WIM) should be BACKWARD, not FORWARD looking, and should be constrained to just the work of the Executive Committee (ExCom).

What level of absurdness is that, you ask? Why review a body that has been in existence for six years, that was enshrined in the Paris Agreement (which, last time ECO checked, was a forward-looking agreement), without looking to the level of loss and damage that vulnerable countries will expect?

After six years in existence, it is time to assess whether the WIM is fit for purpose. Given the impacts the IPCC 1.5C report tells us are now on the horizon, this is about more than just the ExCom. This is about the Mechanism as a whole, and whether it has and CAN deliver upon its original mandate, which includes the enhancement of action and support, such as finance.

A Review that simply looks at what has been done, in order to determine if something has been achieved, is virtually a box-ticking exercise.
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ECO is still wondering about the real motives of those who would not want to give adequate attention to the 1.5°C Special Report of the IPCC. Pushing others to actively ignore the alarm bells for the planet and its people is what climate change denialists do. The suffering of men and women, boys and girls that we can hear about on World Refugee Day should be a stark reminder that we cannot ignore the potentially disastrous future billions of people and species on this planet will face. So don’t let ignorance win over humanity’s wisdom!

Climate change is directly driving displacement. Directly through extreme weather events that are destroying homes and flooding communities, as well as indirectly by exacerbating other drivers, such as increasing water stress or food insecurity that forces people to leave their homes to seek other livelihoods. But it is also true that “multiple drivers and embedded social processes influence the magnitude and pattern of livelihoods and poverty, and the changing structure of communities related to migration, displacement, and conflict”, as the IPCC report states.

The IPCC special report did not produce figures in terms of the number of people affected by displacement, partially because no specific studies were identified which looked at the difference between 1.5°C and 2°C in terms of the expected number of climate migrants.
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For the Middle East, the climate crisis is already a harsh reality. From the floods of Jeddah to the droughts and sea level rise in many Mediterranean cities. The region will face more droughts, sea level rise, heat waves, and more hot days, which will make especially children and women more vulnerable. These effects will lead to crop failure in the areas with poor natural resource management. The conflict over scarce resources will increase and lead to demographic pressures in the places people flee to. This will mean having internally displaced persons; others might seek asylum. They might be portrayed as economic migrants, but in 10 years they will be clearly classified as climate migrants. One of the biggest challenges in developing new policies will be to define such climate migrants.  

The Nile delta, in Egypt, for example, which is highly vulnerable to sea level rise, is densely populated. With a 1m rise in sea level, an estimated 4,500 km² of farmland could be flooded, displacing 6 million people.  

Internal migration has already started in the Middle East. If the climate crisis intensifies, we risk a political and armed conflict taking hold throughout the Fertile Crescent, which will probably be a lot less fertile because of climate change.
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Over 70 million people in the world now live as refugees who fled war, persecution and conflict – the highest level that the UNHCR has seen in its almost 70 years, according to their Global Trends report. It is the world’s developing regions who are hosting 84% of all refugees.

While they grapple with the refugee crisis, the unfolding climate emergency is making it worse for them as well as for the entire global community. In 2017 alone, there were over 18 million new displacements associated with disasters (such as floods and storms accounting for more than 80% of the incidents) across 135 countries and territories, according to Geneva based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).

The deadly drought in Afghanistan that affected 2.2 million people, displaced more people human beings in 2018 than the war between the country’s government and the Taliban. In the last few weeks, India has faced extremely high temperatures wherein the capital city of Delhi had its highest ever June temperature of 48°C, while the city of Churu in Rajasthan state experienced 50.8°C.  More than 70%of districts in the Indian states of Maharashtra and Karnataka are hit by drought and crop failure, forcing thousands of people out of their homes and making it hard for about 8 million farmers to survive.
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A serious discussion suddenly broke out yesterday in room Addis Abeba on how to meet the ultimate objective of the Convention and prevent dangerous climate change. This under the item of the Second Periodic Review (SPR) of the long-term global goal under the Convention, where Parties started sharing concrete ideas and proposals for how to move forward with Theme 1 of the item – reviewing the adequacy of the global goal. (Theme 2 is a review of progress in getting there)

Some might say that we are hopelessly off course from a pathway anywhere near 2 degrees Celsius that it doesn’t matter much whether we aim for 1.5°C or well below 2°C or somewhere in between. But there is a lot of truth in the old adage that if you don’t know where you are going, you are unlikely to get there.

And in fact, the global goal agreed in 2015 under the Paris Agreement and the UNFCCC is ambiguous. For ECO it is clear, limiting warming to 1.5°C is the only reasonable option. What is most important – Limiting warming to 1.5°C, or well below 2°C. What about overshoot and return? How much effort should be made to limit warming to 1.5°C.
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