Category: Previous Issues Articles

\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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ECO is in need of a good glass of Spanish wine over which to reflect on COP25’s failure to match the urgent demands for climate action being made by our fellow citizens back home. The emphasis now shifts to real climate action at the national level — where it really counts.
“Net zero” targets have become a rather fashionable way for countries to claim that they are acting on climate change. But this simplistic phrase ignores important components, and allows for obfuscation and delay.
Let’s be honest: there is hardly any carbon budget left to stay under 1.5°C of warming, which means there can be no waiting around for future governments to have the courage to act. Certain countries’ targets of “net zero by 2050” are woefully insufficient. ECO reminds parties that at this rate, the planet, and its people — including our adorable future grandchildren — will be long-fried by 2050.
Emissions must decrease as fast as conceivably possible in rich countries, including a complete phase-out of fossil energy. Action needs to start now, and strong near-term targets for 2025 and 2030 are needed to make sure that any target is effective. We need to not so much bend, as smash the curve for steep reductions in wealthy and high-polluting countries.
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In many ways, the COP can take place anywhere. Inside the halls, meeting rooms and plenary spaces of IFEMA, you could be forgiven for forgetting that you are in in Spain at all. Each year the COP comes to town and creates a world of its own. Whether you are in Katowice, Bonn, Marrakech or Paris, the view from the negotiating table is frustratingly generic. Each year the negotiations are characterised by the same tedious bickering, the same dragging of heels, and the same proactive vandalism of the process by big polluting countries.
However, when the COP comes to Glasgow next year, it will be coming to a very specific place. From a UK point of view, the COP taking place in Glasgow is a complex predicament. Scotland remains part of the United Kingdom, but has its own government with extensive powers in key areas, including over many aspects of climate change policy. COP26 will therefore be a UK Government event, taking place in a part of the country that develops its own, more ambitious, climate policy. Furthermore, just as we don’t know if the UK will still be in the EU this time next year, there will be questions asked about Scotland remaining in the UK, as its government seeks legislation for a second referendum on Scottish Independence.
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Dear Party delegates,

2019 has been a year in which millions of people have taken their demands to the streets (and hundreds to the halls of the IFEMA Conference Center), clearly voicing our discontent with the c-o-m-p-l-e-t-e lack of ambition to address the climate emergency.

With only 17 days separating us from 2020 — the year when global emissions need to decrease drastically — it’s high time to adopt an ambitious package here at COP, before going home and getting to work in our respective countries and communities.  We came here to hear your concrete plans on how you will enhance your NDCs by 2020 to ensure we limit warming to 1.5°C, and we didn’t hear much that inspired hope.

To prepare you for such an exciting year as 2020 will be, ECO has put together a list of the necessary ingredients for a truly transformative NDC:

This NDC will affect everyone, so include everyone; ensure a broad civil society based approach. Don’t know where to start? Here’s a TIP: process needs to be Transparent, Inclusive and Participatory.
A well-defined timeline for enhancing your NDCs, making sure they are complete by the end of August or, at latest, September.
A long-term strategy that will ensure a sustainable, equitable, and just transition of our societies, for people and planet, with real positive impact on the ground and at local levels.
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At COP24 in Katowice, 14 accredited participants were stopped at the border and denied entry into Poland so that they would not be able to attend the COP. These people were from the Ukraine, Russia, Kyrgyzstan and Georgia.

After 1 year, it is still a mystery to ECO on how the Polish authorities identified those climate activists as a possible “threat to national security” of the hosting country. Most of them were newcomers at international climate change events, and did not have records of offences in Poland or any other country. ECO hopes it was not like in the movies when police officers make their investigations based off some paranormal perception of the future.

This year, we met Nugzar Kokhreidze from Georgia, who had been denied the right to participate in the climate negotiations by Poland and spent 4 days in the transit zone at the Katowice airport. He is a friendly, cheerful, and kind person and  it is still not been made clear why and how he was selected as a person who poses a potential threat to Poland’s national security. Now at COP25, Nugzar has become one of the 12 people who were physically debadged during a peaceful protest on Wednesday, December 11th.
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On December 9, the world celebrated anti-corruption day, and on December 10 human rights day. These topics keep evaporating at COP. Why is ambition still lacking when we have the solutions, technologies, and the money? Solving the climate crisis is possible, but vested economic interests, corporate capture, and a lack of political will are in the way. CAN is calling on Parties to commit to good governance and act with the highest degree of integrity when deciding on the future of our planet; a conflict of interest policy is urgently needed for the UNFCCC.

We need to end undue influence now

Political interference from vested interests prevents measures being taken to solve the climate crisis and can redirect the negotiations toward solutions that don’t align with the science and which undermine ambition. A recent report shows that the world’s five largest oil and gas companies spent over US$1 billion on climate-related branding and lobbying since the Paris Agreement. This must change; the way that lobbying and campaign financing is regulated at national levels must improve. 

Corruption and political interference take many forms, from self-enrichment to the blocking, delaying, and watering down of key policy-making.

The fossil fuel industry and other emission-intensive industries have a long and well-documented history of undermining the UNFCCC and other bodies.
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As countries make plans to ramp up their NDCs, they need a 1.5°C scenario to help them chart a course away from fossil fuels. On Tuesday evening, the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Executive Director Fatih Birol took to the plenary stage for the Energy Day Ministerial meeting. Energy ministers from around the world shared the (still largely inadequate) actions their countries are taking to decarbonize the energy sector.

Sadly, right now, the IEA is fueling inadequate levels of ambition. The IEA has rebuffed growing calls to develop a 1.5°C scenario. Instead, the IEA, in its scenarios, prolongs our dependence on fossil fuels — especially fossil gas. It’s so-called Paris-aligned scenario only reaches net-zero by 2070, at least 20 years too late. The IEA’s World Energy Outlook (WEO) is frequently used to justify major new fossil fuel infrastructure, including coal in Australia, tar sands in Canada, fracking in the Permian, and offshore drilling in the Arctic. All of these new developments are incompatible with 1.5°C.

“Energy decision-makers need to make hard decisions… The aim is not to increase our egos, but to decrease our energy emissions,” said Birol. ECO couldn’t agree more. Now it is time for the IEA to put egos aside and heed the science, the needs of its own members, the growing calls from the financial community and the climate movement and create a 1.5°C scenario.
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