Categoría: Current Issue Articles

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13 Jun, 2024

50 lives lost in Sudan’s heatwave hell: The world’s shameful silence

The news from Sudan is nothing short of horror. Today, we must confront the tragic tale of more than 50 Sudanese people, in their desperate attempt to cross the Northern border, have died from merciless heatwaves. So severe was the damage done to the bodies that reports confirmed some bodies had skin peeled off due to severe dehydration. Survivors have reported to news outlets that «dozens in the desert have no water» and that «entire families died due to high temperatures and the deceased were left behind.»

This grim reality underscores the brutal intersection of war, famine, and now deadly heat waves; none of which, of course, are the brainchild of the innocent civilians now left to roast in the Saharan sun. Sudan has tragically morphed into a sort of twisted playground for regional powers. These powers exploit Sudan’s chaos, digging for gold to fund their energy transitions and staking claims on arable land, all while millions of Sudanese people are left to wilt and wither.

More than 10 million people have been displaced within Sudan due to ongoing conflict, the largest displacement on earth, and over 15,000 are dead. Those displaced face violence and hunger, and now they are increasingly vulnerable to extreme weather.
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13 Jun, 2024

Climate Action without a pulse: ACE in the hole or just another card in the climate deck?

In the labyrinthine world of climate negotiations, where high stakes, higher temperatures, and the highest level of bureaucratic flair converge, there sits an unassuming champion— the Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE). Yes, ACE, that often overlooked yet curiously potent alphabet soup that promises to educate, engage, and empower. But does it? Or is it merely another decorative card in the climate action deck?

Let’s cut through the smog. ACE should be the heartbeat of climate strategy, pulsing through education, public awareness, and, dare we say, actual participation. But as our high-flying delegates debate the fate of our planet, ACE often finds itself shuffled to the bottom of the deck, peeked at with interest but rarely played with the gusto it deserves.

This year, amidst coffee-fueled side chats and a proactive ACE Dialogue, a revelation seemed to dawn—of course at glacial pace—that without funding and firm commitments, ACE is like a solar panel under a shade tree: optimistically placed but disappointingly underutilized. Funding is where the lofty ambitions meet the road, yet here we are, watching as financial disparities are glossed over with all the enthusiasm of a mandatory safety demonstration.

In a world where ‘engagement’ too often means ticking boxes and where ‘public participation’ looks suspiciously like an echo chamber, ACE’s potential for real, systemic change is being stifled.
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13 Jun, 2024

Dear Mitigation Work Programme negotiators

ECO addresses this informal summary of complaints to you:

You have been negotiating now for ten days. You have exchanged views on the dialogues, whether to have inf infs, how to interpret complementarity, and so on. Many views diverged. Others converged. This discussion may not have mitigated anything or been programmatic, but it was certainly work. A lot of work.

On Wednesday morning, the co-facilitators attempted to capture Parties’ views in an informal note. In that sense, ECO wants to thank AILAC and South Korea, for reminding Parties on Tuesday how these informal notes feed into the process.

However, throughout yesterday, sessions disappeared from CCTV mysteriously. ECO learned that some usual suspects actively prevented this informal note from being introduced to the room. Although ECO definitely would have preferred a draft text, in its absence the informal note could have provided some basis to resume negotiations.

Then, when everyone finally got into the room, certain countries accused the co-facilitators’ summary of being illegitimate – even after Secretariat lawyers provided legal advice that co-facilitators can prepare informal documents of their own motion.

ECO is disappointed to witness this level of mistrust and lack of transparency in the MWP space. Some called it a «toxic space»; at first ECO was confused, but now totally gets it.
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13 Jun, 2024

Remember me? I’m that fund you created not so long ago

Today is the last day of the negotiations in Bonn, and I’ve been feeling left out. Last year, you were hyped about creating me – the Loss & Damage Fund – but you seem to have left me behind in the Expo City of Dubai. My second board meeting is around the corner, but some of you don’t even want to invite me to the new climate finance goal. What am I, if I’m not climate finance?

Yes, we urgently need to mitigate and adapt, but what about the communities that are already facing climate impacts because of your decades of burning fossil fuels and failing to provide finance to developing countries? I’m here to help them respond, rebuild, recover, and keep their heads above water – literally.

The third and final Glasgow Dialogue made me hopeful for some recognition, and you did raise many important points: making me directly accessible to communities, gender-responsive, and human rights-based. You talked about my relationships with the WIM and the Santiago Network – as Facebook would say: “it’s complicated”. But now that the Glasgow Dialogue is over, there is no new space available to discuss how I will grow and develop? And how am I even going to exist, if I’m not funded at scale to meet the needs of communities and countries?
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13 Jun, 2024

“Quantum” seems to be the hardest word

As ECO leaves SB60 seeing no progress achieved in the Ad Hoc Work Programme on the NCQG, here’s our sad, sad song to Parties…

(to the tune of Elton John’s ‘Sorry seems to be the hardest word”…)

What do I got to do to make you fund me?

What do I got to do to make you care?

What do I do when TEDs just dodge me?

And in each and every session you’re not there

What do I do to make you want me?

What do I got to do to be heard?

What do I say when AHWP’s over?

Quantum seems to be the hardest word

It’s sad (so sad) so sad

It’s a sad sad situation

And it’s getting more and more absurd [it really is!]

It’s sad (so sad) so sad

Why can’t we talk it over [well in advance of COP29]?

Oh, it seems to me that the quantum seems to be the hardest word…

ECO thinks we need to urgently hear much, much more from developed countries about just how much the climate finance goal should actually be based on needs in developing countries. Over to you.

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13 Jun, 2024

ECO mourns the loss of the visionary Klaus Töpfer

Monday afternoon the news spread that Klaus Töpfer has died at the age of 85. ECO mourns this loss and commemorates his achievements in a wide set of environmental policies. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Klaus Töpfer was Germany’s environment minister and drove forward some progressive policies on climate, circular economy, and waste. In Germany, he made particular headlines in 1988 when he swam across the Rhine River near Mainz, demonstrating its improved water quality after chemical accidents and fish die-offs.

From 1998 to 2006 Töpfer headed the UN Environment Programme and played a key role in lifting it out of a deep crisis into an organisation embracing a more comprehensive environmental perspective and more strongly integrating wider sustainable development considerations.

Töpfer was a strong advocate for environmental causes, often ahead of the discourse in a visionary manner, including the phase-out of nuclear energy after the Chernobyl catastrophe, and promoting renewable energy sources, as an early supporter of the founding of the International Renewable Energy Agency. As German housing minister, he framed the important support for low and zero-energy buildings (“Passive housing”) and worked closely with trade unions involved in buildings renovation to lower heat demand.

ECO remembers that his meetings with CSOs in numerous conferences in Bonn, but also worldwide, were famous, filled with insightful anecdotes and inspiring suggestions, often accompanied (or triggered) by good wine.

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9 Feb, 2015

Finanzas: Lo que hay que poner (de nuevo) en el texto

Las negociaciones se desplazan hoy hacia la sección de finanzas de os elementos de texto elementos, y hay varios elementos clave que siguen desaparecidos, en parte debido a los débiles resultados en Lima sobre la financiación climática. Aquí hay algunos ejemplos de áreas en las que el texto debe ser fortalecido.

La idea de metas colectivas globales para las finanzas aparece aquí y allá en el texto, pero en ninguna parte se capturó de manera suficientemente clara y completa. Un acuerdo duradero tiene que fijar objetivos colectivos para la prestación de apoyo financiero a los países en desarrollo, una parte para mitigación, y otra para daptación – y revisar y ajustar regularmente estos objetivos como parte de los ciclos acuerdo. En particular, un objetivo colectivo de finanzas públicas para la adaptación es clave a la luz de la gran brecha entre lo que se necesita y lo que se ofrece actualmente en ese frente.

El acuerdo debe incluir ciclos regulares de compromisos de financiación de los países desarrollados (y de países con responsabilidad y capacidad similar) contribuyendo al cumplimiento de los 2 objetivos antes mencionados. Hasta ahora, los países desarrollados han rechazado por completo este concepto -ejem!-: ¿sin compromisos? ¿No es de esto de lo que tratan los acuerdos?:
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9 Feb, 2015

Hagan la cuenta: 0fósil + 100%renovables = 1 meta de la Convención cumplida

Las últimas reuniones del Diálogo Estructurado de Expertos (SED) han comenzado! Hay dos cuestiones de vida o muerte sobre la mesa: 1) «es suficiente estar por debajo de 2 ° C para cumplir el objetivo de la convención?» y 2)Se están haciendo suficientes esfuerzos para alcanzar la meta?»¿Es suficiente progreso logrado para alcanzar la meta?»: El mensaje del SED es claro: la ciencia dice que el calentamiento +2ºC llevará a numerosas consecuencias intolerables que podrían evitarse si el calentamiento se mantiene debajo de 1.5ºC

Estas consecuencias amenazan la seguridad alimentaria, el aumento de los fenómenos meteorológicos extremos, el aumento del nivel del mar de más de 50 cm con efectos graves para muchas zonas costeras y ponen en peligro la existencia de varias naciones, para empezar. ECO está triste: en realidad: esta lista no es exhaustiva.

Ayer, AOSIS demostró lo que se requiere, para la supervivencia de muchas comunidades de los pequeños Estados insulares es proponer que el objetivo «muy por debajo de 1.5ºC» sea incluido en el texto de negociación del acuerdo de París.

Hoy en día, esperamos que se dedique más tiempo a la segunda pregunta. La evidencia del mundo real nos muestra: «no, los impactos están empeorando», pero los expertos todavía tienen un papel importante que jugar.
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9 Feb, 2015

Pérdidas y Daños requiere instituciones y finanzas a su altura

Estimado delegado, tal vez ha permanecido despierto preguntándose ¿cómo alimentar a su familia ahora que su ganado ha muerto en la más reciente sequía? O tal vez usted se ha preguntado si su familia puede reconstruir su casa otra vez, luego de dos tifones de un tiro? ¿O cuánto tiempo sus hijos serán capaces de vivir en su tierra ancestral que está siendo invadida por las grandes mareas?

ECO sólo puede suponer que, al menos por ahora, ha estado evitando la pérdida y el daño climático que algunos de nuestros parientes más vulnerables ya están experimentando. Simplemente no es posible adaptarse a los peores impactos del cambio climático, es por eso que debemos construir instituciones capaces de hacer frente a este desafío multifacético.

El Mecanismo Internacional de Varsovia para Pérdidas y Daños es un buen comienzo, pero hay que estar atentos para asegurarse de que responde a las necesidades de los más vulnerables, y hay que estar abierto a nuevas medidas si no es suficiente. Además, debemos asegurar una fuente confiable de financiamiento para Pérdidas y Daños – reconociendo que cuanto más baja la ambición de mitigación y se proporciona menos apoyo para la adaptación, mayores serán los costos por Pérdidas y Daños.
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9 Feb, 2015

Para: G20 Ministros de Finanzas | Asunto: «Recordatorio amistoso: eliminar gradualmente los subsidios a los combustibles fósiles»

Al entrar en el meollo de las negociaciones ADP aquí en Ginebra, siempre es importante tener en cuenta los acontecimientos y debates que suceden fuera del proceso de la CMNUCC. Para aquellos que desconocen, los ministros de Finanzas del G-20 se reúnen hoy y mañana en Turquía para discutir las prioridades del G-20, dos de los cuales son el cambio climático y la financiación para el clima de este año.

De Ginebra a Estambul, nos gustaría recordar a nuestros ministros de Finanzas de un compromiso que sus líderes hicieron hace más de 5 años: eliminar las subvenciones a los combustibles fósiles. Es una lástima tener que recordar uma y outra vez lós compromisos a lós gobiernos, pero vamos a seguir haciéndolo hasta que se cumplan. El viernes pasado, 40 organizaciones no gubernamentales de países de todo el mundo enviaron una carta al Presidente del G-20 de Turquía y todos los ministros de Finanzas del G20, pidiendo la eliminación gradual de los subsidios a los combustibles fósiles. En la carta se pedía la inmediata eliminación de subsidios a la producción y exploración, porque, seamos sinceros, ese dinero podría ser mucho mejor gastado en la acción climática, en el país y en el extranjero.
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