ECO Newsletter

One of the expected outcomes stated by many developed countries prior to the SBs in Bonn was operationalising the Santiago Network for Loss and Damage. Sadly, as we enter the final day, all the hard work remains. One of the critical obstacles to progress has been reaching agreement on the governance of the Santiago Network.

This difference of governance thinking reflects the more significant and divergent visions for the Santiago Network. The developed country vision is restricted by limited resources, while the developing country vision is expansive to establish a network that is commensurate with what is needed on the ground, to address loss and damage in communities already reeling from the climate emergency.
The developed countries want the Santiago Network to be overseen by the Executive Committee (ExCom) of the Warsaw International Mechanism (WIM), whereas the developing countries suggest an inclusive advisory board. That is to say, not a replication of the advisory boards already in existence for the Green Climate Fund, the Adaptation Fund or the CTCN, but an advisory body that learns from these and adopts their strengths while learning from their challenges.

So why can’t the ExCom provide the advisory function to the SNLD? ECO would like to highlight two significant limitations.
... Read more ...

Climate change is recognised as the greatest health threat of the 21st century, while action on climate change could offer the greatest health opportunity.

Health may not formally be on the agenda here in Bonn, but it flows through the veins of these negotiations. From health metrics as one option to measure progress towards the GGA (put forward by the Adaptation Committee last year), to whether future themes of the Koronivia joint work on agriculture might include malnutrition in all its forms, to health co-benefits through delivery of an ambitious mitigation work programme, to the AOSIS proposal to consider climate-smart health projects under Article 6, and to finance needed for health impacts alongside other losses and damages – mitigation and adaptation in the health sector should be monitored alongside other sectors as part of the Global Stocktake.

Climate change drives heatwaves and other extreme weather events, vector- and water-borne disease transmission, food and water insecurity, malnutrition, and negative mental health impacts, undermining the right to health. In addition, millions of deaths occur due to air pollution, which shares a common toxic root cause with climate change: fossil fuels. We all know someone who has had a heart attack or a stroke, maybe a close relative, a mother, a grandfather or a colleague.
... Read more ...

It sort of doesn’t matter what the details are that have delayed progress this session towards the operationalisation of the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA). To the millions condemned to autonomous adaptation – that is people dealing with the increasing impacts of the climate crisis on their own – this means that they are going to be waiting for help even longer. Still, there remains a global responsibility for adaptation and it is in these halls that Parties are meant to have been working on meeting it.

The workshops last week might have made some progress after an initial false start – when Parties pretended to carry out negotiations but very quickly went back to quibbling, wasting more time on that than was set up for the workshops. And they still don’t have an agreed text to send to the SBs. This means that we don’t know how the next seven workshops (which is the GlaSS work programme) are going to be organised. It appears to ECO that some Parties still prefer the quite useless mode that failed so notably last week. So, sorry to those flooded in India, parched in Somalia and sweltering in Pakistan; you are just going to have to wait.
... Read more ...

At times, ECO feels like a broken record. Perhaps our tune isn’t catchy enough. Or perhaps you haven’t heard it because observers have rarely been given the floor. So, we’ll say it one more time: public participation and the ability of people to freely participate, including in UNFCCC meetings, is a human right and essential to effective climate outcomes.

ECO worries that when delegates enter the World Conference Center you forget about those with yellow badges. Unlike the double lines on a rapid antigen test, the yellow line on badges isn’t going to hurt you. People don’t threaten the party-driven process. We are here to help. But over the course of the last two weeks, we have faced appalling hurdles to our participation – from platform issues to not being able to intervene in sessions focused on enhancing our participation and on developing an ACE workplan (here’s a hint: that’s about the right to participate too).

All of this has ECO very worried as we head into COP27. ECO knows about the shrinking civic space and situation of environmental and human rights defenders in Egypt. And we remember the participation issues at COP26.

And there’s more — it’s not just about allowing participation, it’s about enabling and promoting it.
... Read more ...

As the SB56 comes to an end, a sigh of relief can be heard throughout the convention centre. Alas! Soon, two weeks of endless negotiations will be over, and delegations will return back to their capitals with the comforting sense of professional accomplishment. Alas! Soon, the ranting of climate activists, youth, and the victims of inaction shall no longer be heard, and governmental officials may go back to the blissful silence of their ministries – troubled only by the languid rustling of their offices’ air conditioning. Alas…!

Unfortunately, the planet cannot afford the euphoric perspective of your uneventful homecoming. Honourable delegates, as you will soon enjoy the ‘well-deserved’ praises of your superiors (or not…?), ECO would like to address – one last time during this SB56 – their most apologetic condolences for the loss of your bureaucratic tranquillity. The end of SB56 does not amount to the end of our engagement and rest assured that you will continue to hear the voices of our outrage well beyond the Bonn UN Campus. The walls of your ministries will never be thick enough to silence the united voice of millions of victims and the many more that are to come in face of your undelivered promises.
... Read more ...

Farewell, farewell…
ECO assisted the last events on the Global Stocktake on Tuesday with the plenary session and the Joint Contact Group meeting, where sadly observers could not take the floor during the second one.

The World Café was probably the highlight of this first technical dialogue. Even if the place was noisy and a bit crowded, we had useful conversations across several themes and also between parties, observers and non-state actors. ECO recommends prioritising this format for Sharm el-Sheikh, which means smaller groups, on more specific topics, and more importantly, with the same diversity of views and actors. The participation of observers and non-state actors beyond the UNFCCC constituencies is critical for the success of the Global Stocktake. Without this, it cannot be meaningful.

However, some key issues for the transition were missing from the conversations, especially for the roundtables. ECO welcomes the fact that losses and damages were discussed at the adaptation and means of implementation roundtables: we are in an emergency crisis and we must respond to the needs of the most vulnerable. The GST should most definitely be a key support to increase loss and damage assessment in terms of impact, good practices, and dedicated finance. However, fossil fuel issues did not receive sufficient focus.
... Read more ...

ECO loves poetry. We can be found jotting little rhymes in quiet moments while waiting for plenaries to open (or finish). That’s why ECO has been keenly listening into the Global Goal on Adaptation, the NCQG, and the Nairobi Work Programme for signs of inspiration – since nowhere is there so much potential for poetry as in adaptation finance. ECO is hearing some signs of progress, but lots of delegates seem to have a bad case of writer’s block, so here are some top tips to write the perfect adaptation finance poem by COP27:

A good poem is the right combination of both quantitative and qualitative elements, with the right balance of numbers (of lines, stanzas and syllables). In adaptation finance, Parties know the overarching principle should be the balance between mitigation and adaptation finance promised back in Copenhagen, but some seem to find it hard putting it into practice. This should equate to at least 50 per cent of all climate finance flows, including the annual US$100 billion pledge. More adaptation finance needs to go to Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States who are not getting enough. Beyond this a more complex numerical structure deepens poetic effect: targeting gender-transformative action in all adaptation finance and tracking delivery to the local level is key.
... Read more ...

Last week, ECO shared its renewed hopes that, in Bonn, Parties would finally start delivering climate justice for people on the frontlines. The negotiations on Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) and loss and damage (L&D) are dashing our hopes.

ECO reminds Parties that while you squabble over an ACE action plan, environmental defenders – actively participating and taking climate action, the very point of ACE – are being targeted. In the two weeks you have been blah blah-ing, an average of eight environmental human rights defenders were killed. And while you wrangle over L&D, communities are devastated by the dire reality of rising sea levels, floods, droughts, and hunger. People are targeted by corporations and States, and by the disastrous impacts of the climate crisis.

As the end draws near, it is becoming clear that Bonn will not bring justice for environmental defenders and victims of L&D. After a disappointing conclusion at COP26 for ACE (and more), last week, Parties publicly affirmed the importance of including rights-based activities in the ACE action plan but seem to have lost their way; again failing to safeguard rights, defenders and their ability to participate. The Glasgow Dialogue on L&D has fulfilled ECO’s prediction: another talk-shop that couldn’t deliver a finance facility.
... Read more ...

We are hearing a lot from wealthy economies about a sense of urgency to operationalize the Santiago Network for Loss and Damage (SNLD). But are these genuine calls for accelerated action or are they the actions of a dodgy salesperson trying to convince a desperate customer to purchase something that isn’t what they need?  

The Santiago Network was born at the Chilean COP25 as a ray of hope to finally start delivering on the missing third function of the Warsaw International Mechanism (WIM), enhancing action and support; including finance, technology, and capacity-building to address loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change. Since the establishment of the WIM back in 2013, the people impacted by the climate emergency have been desperately waiting for action in this respect. This gaping hole in the global architecture was exposed in 2019 at the WIM review prior to COP25. The review made it crystal clear that the absence of any action to address loss and damage was a major flaw in the WIM despite this function clearly being the third pillar of their mandate.

So, we are now hearing about urgency to act, and that we need to get the SNLD established as quickly as possible, but what is actually being offered?
... Read more ...