Category: Previous Issues Articles

If you’re feeling dizzy or out of breath, it might be more than the usual near-end to negotiations delirium – we’re almost two weeks breathing air that’s way over the WHO air pollution recommendations. PM2.5 in Dubai has been over 40 every day since Dec 2nd, and has been over 60 the least three days – which is eight times the WHO’s maximum safe level. While there are grave health risks of long term exposure to air pollution, including stroke, heart disease and some cancers, even short term exposure to elevated PM2.5 has health risks, including asthma exacerbation, breathing challenges, and increased risk of respiratory infection – anyone get hit with that nasty COP cold going around? 

Have you noticed the gas flaring on the metro en route to the COP28 venue, or been stuck in evening traffic gridlock? Air pollution in Dubai is in large part due to vehicle emissions and fossil fuel energy production, we’re all getting a taste of the results of inaction on fossil fuel phase out – it is tangy, metallic and not at all pleasant. 

We’re hoping that this two week exposure to this grating reality of so many, will motivate negotiators to keep fossil fuel phase out language in the GST text.
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ECO would like to remind delegates to the Second Periodic Review of the Climate Convention which was held 2021-2022 and finalized one year ago at COP 27 with the intention to feed into the GST negotiations. The Review identified 10 key messages such as:

• At 1.1°C warming, the world is already experiencing extreme climate change. 
• Climate impacts and risks, including risk of irreversible impacts, increase with every increment of warming.
• It is still possible to achieve the long-term global goal with immediate and sustained emission reductions.
• The window of opportunity to achieve climate-resilient development is rapidly closing.
• The world is not on track to achieve the long-term global goal.
• Equity is key to achieving the long-term global goal. 

ECO recognises that the rate of global warming is occurring in line with projections or even worse. Global warming is happening faster and more drastically than anticipated while the projections for future climate impacts in coming decades might be exceeding the short-, mid, and long-term projections even under low emissions scenarios.

This brings us closer to Tipping Points that might trigger a complete instability and extinction of entire ecosystems, irreversibility of weather and other patterns and resilience of human communities – even before exceeding 1.5°C.
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It has been two months since Israel brazenly announced its intention to violate International Humanitarian Law by cutting off all food, water, and electricity to Palestinians in the already besieged Gaza. Simultaneously subjecting them to constant and indiscriminate bombings and ground attacks. From the second week of Israel’s campaign in Gaza, my cousins in Nuseirat Refugee Camp in the central Gaza Strip were concerned about water: 

“There is effectively no electricity or water in the Gaza Strip,” wrote Mohammed, a mathematics professor and young father of one, on October 17th. “We’re lucky to live next to an agricultural area so we can at least access [untreated] well water, but 90% of the population don’t even have this option. Displaced people sheltering in UNRWA schools come to us sometimes asking for just one liter of agricultural water – they are desperate. Many people are drinking unsafe water.” 

Weeks later, the effects of being forced to drink unclean water began to show:

“All of my children have suffered from diarrhea for days,” Wesam, a physician and mother of three children under the age of six, told me on November 11th.

Mohammed wrote on December 3rd that his two-year-old son is sick with gastrointestinal issues.
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In the rich tapestry of African wisdom, proverbs have long been used to convey complex ideas through simple, powerful metaphors. Let’s explore the critical need for a strong Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) framework through the lens of an African proverb:

“As the baobab tree stands sturdy, branching towards the sky, so must our GGA framework be – robust and reaching high.”

Just as a baobab tree supports many branches with its vast and sturdy trunk, a strong GGA framework must support a range of actions and goals. A tree without roots cannot stand – just as a framework without robust support and targets, including Means of Implementation (MoIs), is incomplete. Like a tree that grows but bears no fruit, a framework with targets but no metrics to measure progress also fails to fulfil its purpose.

We find ourselves at a crossroads, much like a traveller at the edge of the savannah, with a narrow path leading to 2040. This path is our opportunity to adapt at all levels with the scale and urgency required. Our GGA framework must be like a well-planned journey – purposeful, principled, covering all dimensions and themes, and mindful of the cross-cutting issues that intertwine like the roots of the great baobab.
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Time for cake today: it’s the Universal Declaration of Human Rights’ 75th birthday! ECO went all out to organize a surprise party at COP28 and invited a number of important guests, but no one showed up. What a pity that due to very foreseeable circumstances, the Right to Freedom of Expression couldn’t be there, and the Right to Peaceful Assembly could barely hobble in. In typical fashion, the Right to Remedy failed to RSVP, and the Right to Life cancelled. The new kid on the block, the Right to a Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment, said the fine particulate levels were too high to make it to the party.

But don’t worry! ECO found a few extra guests to invite at the last minute. The Paris Agreement showed up and brought some friends: the Global Stocktake, the Just Transition Work Programme, and the Global Goal on Adaptation. They don’t know the Declaration that well yet, but nothing like free drinks to kickstart a long-lasting relationship. Human rights must be at the operational core of the COP28 outcome for all our new guests: it will make them more effective – as confirmed by the IPCC – and in line with Parties’ international obligations. 
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What a day! ECO had the privilege of attending the first Renewable Energy Tracker Race. It featured 60 national teams, cheered on by over 70,000 spectators chanting “Just! Fast! Fair! Renewables for All!” Teams competed in a relay, propelled by their energy mixes and respective capabilities. Advanced or emerging and developing economies (EMDEs) had differentiated challenges and specific rules respectively to ensure that the race would be equitable – what an exciting competition!

As the race kicked off, it became quickly evident that the winner would be an unexpected one. No country reached the finish line on time, but Chile, Brazil and China secured the first three places. In the middle of the pack, four EMDEs (Vietnam, Colombia, Jordan and India) overtook many rich nations, which were seen panting and struggling, held back by their lack of ambition, efforts and investments. Some were also spotted losing time burning wood logs to fuel their engine – a wrong tactical move that gave wind and solar-propelled teams a significant advantage!

As the race neared the end, the crowd’s boos got louder: South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Italy – among the rich and high emitter teams – had barely moved beyond the starting line.
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This COP promised big steps for food and climate, so ECO wonders where food systems transformation is in the GST. Did it get lost on the way? ECO really wanted fossil free food, but the COP only served this, right from the can! (or was it an oil barrel?)

ECO is excited to drop some knowledge to help Parties better understand a critical way to increase energy efficiency. Increasing efficiency of the appliances’ sector, which is responsible for nearly 40 per cent of all energy-related emissions, will contribute significantly towards achieving the global target of doubling energy-efficiency by 2030 put forth in this COP.

The recent report by international non-profit CLASP, Net Zero Heroes, provides pathways to rapidly achieve this target.  It highlights 10 specific appliances for action: LED lighting, air conditioners, comfort fans, refrigerator-freezers, electric motors, electric cooking equipment, televisions and solar water pumps, and heat pump space heating and water heaters.   These actions have the potential to cut 9.2 Gt of CO₂ emissions by 2050. By prioritising them, governments can realise vital adaptation and resilience benefits and improve the lives of millions.

Emissions from appliances are projected to overshoot the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) net zero mitigation target by at least 9 Gt of CO₂ emissions in 2050. Simultaneously, appliances are not on track to benefit the billions of people who need them.

Energy efficiency provides a low-cost, straightforward solution for both challenges. By taking advantage of time-tested, easy-to-implement policy levers such as minimum energy performance standards (MEPS) and energy labeling, governments can rapidly supercharge appliance energy efficiency.
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The EU might have escaped winning Fossil of The Day by championing progressive leadership, but that has all changed due to their ongoing opposition to including Loss and Damage in the negotiations of the New Collective Quantified Goal. It appears to be a clear signal that they don’t want to secure long-term finance for those affected by climate change.  

Any further celebrations after they adopted the Loss and Damage fund on the first day will be cancelled if the fund is not continuously filled. 

Attention EU! Did you miss the memo? COP28 is the conference where the fossil fuel era ends, once and for all. To align with the 1.5°C liveable target, we must deliver an energy package that is fast, fair, feminist, forever, and FUNDED. Yes, that’s right EU, countries need financing for the energy transition, and in case you didn’t realise the energy package includes technical and financial support, essential to accelerate the transition. This is crucial; the lack of support from the EU and other rich nations is halting the progress of these negotiations. 

Maybe we should organise a bilateral with the EU and other rich nations to go through the definition of equity, and while we’re at it, we can also define ‘Just Transition’, ‘unabated’, and ‘ambitious’ for them. 
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