Categoría: Previous Issues Articles

Last November, ECO left Bonn on a hopeful note: Parties had agreed to #MindtheGAP. The what? Governments adopted the first-ever UNFCCC Gender Action Plan (GAP), another key milestone in the history of slow but steady inclusion of gender equality in the climate negotiations’ arena. 2018 is about bridging the GAP. ECO counts on Parties to seize the multiple opportunities provided at SB48 to share their successes, challenges and lessons learnt in taking gender equality into account in their climate policies and actions.

We don’t stand on an equal footing as we face climate change. Today’s gender workshop is about generating a dialogue between negotiators and observers on how data on differentiated impacts of climate change on women and men and increased civil society participation in climate decision-making can lead to more appropriate and efficient policies. ECO is aware that the adaptation window was a key entry point to talk about gender under the UNFCCC, but now it is time to open the door all the way for gender in mitigation, capacity-building, and financial and technological support. Next Wednesday’s gender workshop will discuss concrete ways to enhance gender balance on national delegations. And on Saturday, chairs of the different UNFCCC bodies will sit down to see how far we’ve come regarding mainstreaming gender under the UNFCCC and how to take it forward.
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Let’s start at the beginning: Article 6 of the Convention focuses on education, training and public awareness on climate change. So it was natural that in Paris, Parties included Article 12 which commits to “cooperate in taking measures, as appropriate, to enhance climate change education, training, public awareness, public participation and public access to information, recognizing the importance of these steps with respect to enhancing actions under this Agreement.” Parties recognized that the implementation of the Paris Agreement would be strengthened by ensuring that the 5 topics of Article 12, also known as Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE), are effectively promoted through all stages of the implementation of the Paris Agreement.

Yesterday many Parties and non-party actors took part in a very rich workshop reflecting on good practices and opportunities to further enhance the implementation of the Paris Agreement by incorporating ACE principles, including the rights to public participation and climate change education.

This workshop produced a lot of good ideas about implementing ACE. Throughout the workshop, participants raised the crosscutting nature of ACE and the human rights contained in it:  public participation, access to information, and climate change education. The workshop primarily focused on establishing concrete suggestions for Parties to consider in negotiations under SBI.
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ECO is delighted that yesterday’s session on Common Timeframes showed progress. At the first meeting of SB 48, like at COP23 last year, a large number of parties again expressed their support for a 5 year NDC implementation period.

ECO is cheering this effort on. To avoid locking in low ambition and to harness rapidly evolving real world opportunities, 5 years is the way to go. Countries should decide on a common 5 year NDC implementation period at COP24, so that the next round of NDCs could be submitted in 2025 and be implemented from 2031 to 2035.

Big thumbs up to:

AILAC, African Group, South Africa, LDC, New Zealand, Brazil, Bangladesh, Marshall Islands. Special recognition goes to Switzerland for considering adjusting its domestic process to allow 5 year cycles.

Big thumbs down to:

Japan and Norway — ECO wants to understand; why you are resisting? Even in a 5 year regime, there is nothing that prevents you from sending long term signals to your domestic constituencies or even communicating an indicative 10 year target internationally.

Fence sitters

ECO is particularly watching the MoCA-leaders still sitting on the fence! EU — what’s taking you so long to decide? China — ECO welcomes you now consider 5 year as an option.
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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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