Koronivia is a long way from Katowice, but progress on the Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture (KJWA) at COP24 is well within reach.
Every farmer knows that success depends on maximizing the time avail-able within the growing season. This means knowing the landscape with-in which you are working, assembling the resources you need to do your work, and planting and harvesting according to a clearly structured plan.
The same applies to the KJWA.
In order to make the most of the short negotiating season available here, ECO suggests Parties consider the following ways of bringing clarity to the work ahead of them:
- Ask the Secretariat to undertake a mapping of the work of the Constituted Bodies, and a review of available means of implementation – both financial and non-financial. This will allow Parties to identify and discuss existing gaps related to each of the workshop topics.
- Ask the Secretariat to simultaneously undertake a review of available means of implementation, both financial and non-financial.
- Agree that a key deliverable of the KJWA could be criteria or guidance for NDCs, GCF, Adaptation Fund & Constituted Bodies, to ensure they reach five overarching objectives: food security, adaptation, absolute and equitable emission reductions, ecosystem integrity and gender responsiveness.
- Identify questions that Parties and observers can address in submissions and discuss them in the workshops. These could include: which Constituted Bodies are most relevant to the current submission/workshop topic? What guidance or support has your country sought from Constituted Bodies regarding this topic? What are the gaps in the guidance or support provided by Constituted Bodies? What role can Constituted Bodies play to address gaps in knowledge and means of implementation and to support the identification of good practices and the development of guidance for action?
The KJWA was a major achievement after years of difficult talks. It is critical that work now gets underway in a structured way to ensure Par-ties and observers can move together towards having some sense of the tangible outcomes the work program can deliver.
Oh, and as we’re talking about agriculture, here’s some more food for thought: the KJWA is the success of a multilateral process that, for all its shortcomings, is the best bet to ensure that a diversity of perspectives are represented. Hosting workshops anywhere but at formal UNFCCC sessions would be like closing the barn to all but the biggest livestock.