Have you ever watched synchronized swimming? Combining swimming, dancing and gymnastics; it’s considered one of the most complicated dances in the world. It can be done solo, duo, trio or in groups and it’s harder than most sports because it’s also under water.
For quite some time, negotiations around Article 9.5 of the Paris Agreement have felt like a pretty difficult dance. In 2016, it kept us working many hours into the night, and at COP23, ECO felt the outcome was out of step with what was necessary. Throughout the year, we always felt the operationalization of Article 9.5 was going to be a heck of a difficult maneuver at COP24.
Today, at the Head of Delegations meeting, ECO felt countries are finally progressing on one of the most basic rules from the artistic world: a good dance requires not only exquisite technique, but also a lot of trust in your partner. Like, for example, when the APA co-chair agreed with Canada: “we are listening to each other and trying to find solutions”. ECO hopes this rhythm flows further and would like to propose ideas on how this can lead up to a beautiful tango performance called substantial progress and full operationalization of Article 9.5 of the Paris Agreement:
- Contributor countries should agree to provide similar types of ex-ante information for every channel and source to ensure comparability and coherence when informing on the mobilization of climate finance.
- The process should recognize national circumstances and availability of information (such as specificities of national budgets) and allow for a flexible process where contributor countries provide projected levels of public finance in accordance with the obligation under Article 9.5.
- If a contributor country is unable to provide enough quantitative information, such country shall provide as much qualitative information as possible and explain why it cannot provide more.
- As some Head of Delegations said, and ECO agrees, the process to be adopted by Parties must build on the Strategies and Approaches, while at the same time such process should ensure equal reporting modalities for all countries that are mandated or that will voluntarily inform and communicate in accordance with Article 9.5.
- The process should define the timeline and format for submissions, allow for a synthesis of those submissions and plan for a biennial finance ministerial dialogue to discuss the information they contain.
- It should also ensure linkages with the Global Stocktake as per Article 9.6 and overtime to the assessment and overview of climate finance flows.
As the Head of Delegation for Egypt said yesterday, we should focus on the landing and, as the Head of Delegation from South Africa said, there needs to be a balance between information and the process on how to use this information. This is our challenge right now!
ECO welcomes this synchronization among Parties and hopes these dialogues will give them the trust and tools to fully operationalize Article 9.5 of the Paris Agreement.
