ECO is worried as it reads the summary report of the four workshops under the Glasgow Sharm El-Sheikh work programme (GlaSS) on the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA). It claims incremental progress, but this is clearly not enough when the urgent need is for rapid transformation. And it leaves us with a huge gap between the GlaSS work programme and the needs and rights of the most vulnerable people and ecosystems.
Let ECO remind parties that GlaSS is now at the halfway point towards adopting a decision on GGA in COP28. And it is looking pretty flimsy. We need a concrete outcome here at COP27, which reflects what is needed by people on the frontlines working to build their capacity and resilience, and reduce their vulnerability.
Parties: we have to move past diplomatic niceties and negotiations, and decide what can meaningfully be done to ‘strengthen implementation of adaptation actions in vulnerable developing countries. ECO suggests that the next four workshops should reflect the strands from the first four: sectoral approaches, locally-led adaptation, ecosystem and nature-based solutions, financial and technical support. This would finally bring real meaning to the global goal and provide the means for reaching it.
And so, as we go into informal consultations, this Capacity Building Day, let’s work constructively to get the GlaSS house in order by the end of COP27.