ECO Newsletter

Ingredients (feeds 8-10 billion): 

• 30 to 50% protected Earth’s ecosystems (you will need terrestrial, freshwater and marine – high-integrity versions taste best) 
• Restored ecosystems in degraded areas
• Improved ecosystem management
• Finance sauce, generous amounts 
• Respect for Indigenous rights, sovereignty, and knowledges
• Input and leadership from local communities, Indigenous Peoples, youth, women, and beyond
• Ambitious NDCs and NBSAPs

Preparation: 

Before you begin, remember: nature is not your kitchen appliance – it’s your co-chef. 

1. Set the oven to below 1.5ºC by rapidly phasing out all fossil fuels and slashing emissions in all sectors.
2. In a large bowl of Global Stocktake, add a hearty dollop of increased ambition to protect and restore land, freshwater, and ocean ecosystems. For optimal results, reference and follow the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
3. Ensure ecosystem protection is added to the bowl ahead of restoration and improved management. (You need them all, but ecosystem protection is the most vital!) 
4. Spoon in the input from diverse groups. 
5. Pour NDCs and NBSAPs into the same bowl and carefully stir climate and biodiversity actions until fully combined and an even paste is achieved. 
6. Add generous amounts of finance sauce including hefty amounts of direct financing for Indigenous Peoples and local communities. 
7. This part is critical: if you forget the respect for Indigenous People’s rights and sovereignty, the dish will never set.

For the first time ever, COP is hosting a thematic day on “Health/Relief, Recovery and Peace”. The “COP28 Declaration Climate, Relief, Recovery, and Peace”, alongside a “package of solutions,” released, seeks to mobilise for more climate action in countries and communities affected by conflict. While the protection and support of those at the frontlines of both conflict and the climate crisis is essential, the declaration fails to address one of the root causes: rampant militarisation.

Recent estimates suggest that global fossil fuel-powered military activity contributes at least 5.5% of global emissions. However, under the Paris Agreement, reporting on military emissions is voluntary, which gives militaries a “de facto” free ride.

Worse still, these estimates do not include emissions arising from active conflict. It has  been calculated that the first year of the war in Ukraine has released additional emissions that equal the annual emissions of a highly industrialised country like Belgium. The data for Gaza are yet to be published. 

Military emissions positively correlate with military spending:  The more governments spend on their militaries, the higher their emissions. In 2022, global military spending rose to an all-time record high of USD 2.24 trillion.

Military spending further diverts crucial resources away from climate mitigation, adaptation and loss and damage.
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Today we started to see some baby steps on this very important track of the Mitigation Work Programme. Once again ECO wants to remind you all that once the GST process is done, the MWP will be the only track dedicated to discussions on mitigation. That’s why we need it so badly.

One sentence that ECO always, yes always, keeps hearing is that MWP discussions need to “avoid duplication” with the GST. Since ECO follows both the GST process and the MWP processes, we see the synergies between the two tracks very clearly: the MWP is about creating the enabling conditions and discussing solutions and barriers to implement the guidance that will come from the GST. The GST is like the dome in the middle of the COP venue: our orientation point for the way forward.

Unfortunately we are faced with a chicken-and-egg dilemma when discussing the MWP text. And discussions have been as confusing as getting around the venue during the World Leaders Summit. For some negotiators, the solution is to get a mandate from the GST on the next steps for the MWP. For others, this is too prescriptive . They also feel that discussing text is premature. ECO wants to remind negotiators that the objective of this agenda item is to urgently scale up mitigation ambition.
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ECO listened attentively to Brazilian President Lula’s remarks on Friday at the leaders’ summit. Although not as inspired (and inspiring) as his speech in Sharm El-Sheikh last year, they nonetheless contained a few good points: a criticism of undelivered promises (check), a defense of CBDR (check), bashing the world’s military expenditures (check), and a quick list of Brazil’s own pro-climate actions in the last eleven months, including the impressive 22% drop on Amazon deforestation. Lula spoke of raising ambition to keep 1.5°C within reach, and we’d expect nothing less from the feted host of COP30.

But wait – what’s that thick black slick over there? Could it be… oil? Yes, friends, believe it or not, Brazil is willing to join OPEC, the infamous oil nations cartel. What’s worse: Lula’s Energy minister somehow thought it was a good idea to announce it on day one of COP28. (That’s the kind of encouragement you get when an oil exec is named COP president.) Pressed by civil society during a meeting on Saturday, Lula rushed to explain: “It’s not OPEC! It’s just OPEC+!” Really, Lula?

Let’s look at the facts here: Lula’s government is preparing to auction 603 new oil and gas blocks, onshore and offshore, just one day after the end of COP28.
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Not Just Consumers, But Creators: A New Dawn for Africa’s Renewable Energy

ECO went to bed full of optimism a couple of nights ago. A sleepy ECO started thinking about how the Triple Renewable Energy pledge could not only light up Africa with 100% renewable energy, but also transform the continent into a powerhouse of renewable technology production. ‘Certainly the answer lies in shifting from mere consumption and extraction to technological self-reliance and equitable mineral use’ ECO thought. But then, zzzzzzzzz!

Harnessing Africa’s Mineral Wealth for Its Energy Revolution

ECO saw Africa’s treasure trove of critical minerals, essential for renewable energy technologies in its dream. And saw a new dawn where these resources do not merely fuel the energy ambitions of the Global North while leaving Africa in the dark. ECO saw the potential of the pledge becoming a beacon guiding Africa to use its minerals – lithium, cobalt, and rare earths – not for export, but through sustainable mining which centers communities and workers’ rights as the building blocks of its own renewable energy infrastructure.

From Extraction to Innovation: A Blueprint for Africa

ECO saw Africa become its own powerhouse, investing in local production: African nations becoming producers, not just exporters of raw materials.
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ECO likes a nice balanced meal. That’s something anyone could enjoy. But ECO will NOT sign up for eating a dead rat. And yesterday’s launch of the ‘Global Decarbonisation Accelerator’ was a nasty sandwich that had ECO gagging.

There was some solid, fluffy bread, and a lot of nice words – and a delicious morsel in the shape of a pledge to triple renewable energy and double energy efficiency. Delicious! If that was where the cooks had left the sandwich, ECO would have feasted with relish.

The trouble is, there were too many cooks in the kitchen. Someone invited oil and gas industry CEOs to join in the cooking, and they served up a dead rat right in the middle of the sandwich: a greenwashing pledge from oil and gas companies, full of recycled pledges, none of which address the emissions from the oil and gas they sell being burned. An energy sandwich without SCOPE 3? Not for ECO. And on the side, they piled up a dish of cheeky carbon capture and storage.

ECO didn’t come to this restaurant for a meal like that. ECO came for a healthy negotiated agreement consisting of a comprehensive energy package, including renewable energy, finance, protections for communities and nature, and a full, fast, fair, funded phase out of all fossil fuels. Will the negotiators put that on the table at COP28?

TALLY UP HOW YOUR COUNTRY SCORES!

How did your minister do? Share the results on social media with the hashtag #NCQGscorecard

ECO loves renewables and has heard that more than 100 states have signed on to a “pledge” to triple renewable energy and double energy efficiency by 2030. That‘s a great start, but a pledge without commitment in the formal outcome is like buying a gym membership and only using the sauna – warm, comfortable, but missing the point.

This COP, ECO wants to see Parties follow through on their pledge and include the target to triple fair, safe and clean renewable energy capacity and double energy efficiency gains by 2030 as part of a formal COP28 decision.

But a renewable goal without a commitment from all Parties to get rid of fossil fuels – and ECO means all fossil fuels – is like a showy gym dude, appearing committed to flexing climate muscles while not being able to do the heavy lifting.

ECO is here to help you avoid that. Delegates, here is a tailored workout plan for you to effectively train your climate justice muscles:

• Exercise 1: Real climate gym influencers immediately scale up their financial muscles to really deliver a credible energy package. Start by acknowledging the financing need in the scale of billions at this COP and make a plan to follow up. ECO has read reports estimating at least $100 billion in concessional loans and $200 billion in grants are needed each year for the transition towards renewables.

Thursday night ECO couldn’t sleep because of the excitement of going to the first Contact Group on the Work Programme on Just Transition Pathways (JTWP). ECO anticipated important discussions on how international cooperation will accelerate justice when implementing the Paris Agreement.

Several Parties mentioned the need for a Just Transition based on human, labour, gender, and Indigenous Peoples’ rights, and social dialogue and inclusion. There was also consensus that the scope of the JTWP should cover the labour as well as the social and economic dimensions of the implementation of the Paris Agreement. Not bad for a first day. 

However, ECO has had another sleepless night – but this time out of concern, as it seems that many Parties think Just Transition for workers and communities will happen by simply discussing their domestic experiences. The JTWP can’t stay there. It needs to recommend decisions and show how multilateralism can improve peoples’ lives. 

A dialogue without decisions is like dating long-term without proposing. COP28 must put a ring on it.