ECO Newsletter

COP27 is a critical opportunity to put Africa’s priorities for tackling the climate crisis in the spotlight. Importantly, it is also a chance for others to step up and support Africa’s agenda. ECO particularly looks towards Europe building on its responsibilities as former colonisers, neighbours, and resource extractors. Faced with huge challenges of addressing energy poverty while securing a just transition away from fossil fuels in some countries, and leapfrogging fossil fuelled development altogether in others, Africa is a continent at a crossroads with two possible futures. Africa can become a clean energy leader with decentralised renewables powering a more inclusive society and a greener economy, or it can become a large polluter that is burdened with stranded assets and economic instability.

Africa’s situation deserves extraordinary attention as it is the continent least responsible for but most threatened by the climate crisis. Africa’s 1 billion citizens have contributed less than 1 per cent of the world’s cumulative greenhouse gas emissions but are facing huge adaptation challenges and increasing climate-driven losses and damages. ECO also wants to stress the importance of pursuing a sustainable development-centred approach to climate and energy goals, which respects African ownership, community, and civil society participation. Despite these challenges,Africa has expertise in adaptation and climate innovations, abundant renewable energy (RE) potential, a young and growing population that is ready to work, and goods and raw materials – especially the critical minerals needed for renewable energy technologies.
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You might have heard some chanting in the Bonn corridors – “No more blah blah blah, loss and damage finance now!” – but let it be clear, it’s not just ECO in support. At Saturday’s action, TUNGO said it loud and clear: “Loss and damage is a trade union issue!” So, we invited them to explain this a little more.

In April, intense rains hit the eastern coast of South Africa, causing floods and landslides. More than 400 people died as a result of the floods, which also destroyed more than 12,000 houses and forced an estimated 40,000 people from their homes.

In July last year, unprecedented rains hit the Rhine basin, with devastating consequences in Germany and Belgium. At least 243 people died, tens of thousands of homes were flooded and power supplies disrupted.

While the mud that comes in through the floods might be very much the same in South Africa and Germany, the trail it leaves is very different.

Every life lost and every home destroyed is a human tragedy. However, the people who got injured or sick in Germany may benefit from medical coverage. Those who lost their jobs (maybe temporarily) due to the closure of their workplace, will have unemployment benefits, guaranteeing their livelihoods.
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Ukraine has made a lot of efforts to increase climate ambition at the legislative level and achieve Paris Agreement goals during the last years. In July 2021, the government approved an updated NDC target for an actual reduction of GHGs. Ukraine committed itself to a 7 per cent emission reduction by 2030 compared to 2019. The first Strategy on Environmental Security and Adaptation to Climate Change was approved and Ukraine has pledged to achieve carbon neutrality in 2060. In recent years, the number of renewable energy sources has increased significantly and, also, the share of renewables in the total balance of electricity production exceeded 13 per cent in 2021. 

However, on February 24, 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine – an escalation of the protracted war in Donbas and occupation of Crimea since 2014. Since then, in 111 days, tens of thousands of people have been killed, thousands of homes destroyed, more than 200 industrial facilities were bombed, about 40% of all renewable energy facilities were occupied or destroyed, and 20% of Ukrainian territory is now occupied by the Russian military. The war directly hit the agricultural sector in Ukraine, and damaged wetlands, forests, and marine ecosystems, causing irreversible damage.
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Dear Article 6 negotiators, ECO knows you did a lot of work over the last several years and that you have a long work plan this year. So, we don’t want to add too much to your plate. However, we would be remiss if we didn’t point out the importance of establishing the independent grievance mechanism.

ECO celebrated in Glasgow when the final decision at COP26 included the establishment of an independent grievance process.  Having an avenue for communities to seek remedy when they’re harmed is essential for respecting the rights of local communities and Indigenous Peoples. But that’s not where the work ends. Now, Parties must establish this process, and it can’t wait. The independent grievance mechanism should be set up before any Article 6 activities take place.

Structures and procedures should be put in place to ensure the independent grievance mechanism is legitimate, accessible, equitable, predictable, transparent, rights-based, and a source of learning. The past has shown us that carbon market activities can and do negatively impact people and their environment. Respecting the right to access effective remedies requires that communities have a place to go when this happens. And that really means when it happens or when they think it will happen, and not years in the future.
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It was nice of the Egyptian Presidency designate’s logistics team to invite us to go diving in Sharm el-Sheikh, but ECO is interested in a different kind of deep dive at this point. So let’s take a deep dive into how delegates planning to attend COP27 are being [gouged] [exploited] [shafted] by the Upper Committee in charge of organizing COP27 and by the Egyptian Hotel Association (Sharm el-Sheikh).

The issue is that the Upper Committee organizing COP27 issued several decrees, directing the Egyptian Hotel Association (EHA) to cancel all existing reservations if the room rates are NOT what they have just designated to be the appropriate fee. This is regardless of whether there is a contract in place, or if payments have been made or not, ECO notes!

The EHA circular 26 (dated 28 April 2022) and titled, “Cancellation of all reservations done with prices different [from] the settled prices for COP27” states in part that ‘the Upper Committee that is preparing for the UN COP27 conference made a decree on 12/4/2022 that the hotels prices during COP27 are settled during the conference and any reservations done with lower prices should be cancelled and can be rebooked with conference prices.’

The EHA circular 84 (dated 6 February 2022), calls on hotels to set minimum prices according to the above table, noting “All hotels should amend their online prices accordingly: Online rates should be higher’ and that 25% of the rate ‘is for the conference.”
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Landing a match can be hard in these times. It’s hard to know what you’re looking for without a supported and coordinated platform that can effectively facilitate quality matchmaking. After all, even Tinder has staff on the back-end helping to structure key information everyone needs to make a great match. We hear that a few countries have some concerns with an overbearing matchmaker, so here’s ECO’s take on what an Article 6.8 Matching Facility is and isn’t.

What it is:

A matching facility: a well organized database of ambitious [projects][or actions] that Parties have submitted detailing their need for that [action]. Think of a detailed project description or concept note which includes how it reduces emissions and/or increases resilience, and how it upholds rights and promotes sustainable development, so that supporting countries or other non-Party actors can look at and then connect to in order to develop and mobilise that action, via funding, technological support, technical assistance, and capacity building.

Accessible: with the right guidance, technical assistance, and flexibility, it can help facilitate a flow of support to local-led action.

Transparent: [projects][or actions] would have information about what it is, where it is, and how it respects human rights; including the rights of indigenous peoples, gender equality, public participation, ecosystem integrity, a just transition… and how it promotes sustainable development.
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Remember how last year was the first time in UNFCCC history where health was recognized as a scientific priority by a COP Presidency? In a way, the silver lining of an otherwise devastating pandemic has been an increased awareness of the fragility of our health systems in the face of global crises – and no crisis is more daunting or puts human health at a greater risk than the climate emergency.

In a side event that took place yesterday, the climate community got an update on the COP26 Health Programme. The Health Programme is an innovative initiative that addresses both sides of the coin in the climate and health nexus: the significant climate vulnerability of global healthcare delivery and the fact that the health sector represents almost 5% of net global GHG emissions. Convened last year by the UK government, the World Health Organization (WHO), Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) and the UNFCCC Climate Champions, the Programme calls on countries to commit to developing climate resilient, sustainable and low emissions health systems. The decarbonisation initiative, in particular, calls for action plans to consider human exposure to air pollution which, according to WHO estimates, is responsible for over 7 million premature deaths each year.
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At the Glasgow Dialogue, the Loss and Damage finance gaps have been increasingly recognized across both developing and developed country Parties. However, the positions and solutions offered by developed country Parties do not speak to the urgency and reality of the most vulnerable people who are bearing the brunt of the climate emergency.

ECO heard how the humanitarian system is increasingly overwhelmed by climatic events and how issues of non-economic losses and slow onset events are not being addressed. We heard how the current financial architecture does not address’ Loss and Damage; this gap needs to be bridged. We heard a call for an IPCC special report on Loss and Damage. ECO itself urges the IPCC to produce a Loss and Damage finance gap report just as we do for mitigation and adaptation. We heard that the burden of coping with these disasters was falling on families on the frontline.  As we heard on Saturday and all throughout the week, the science is unambiguous or as it was stated by one grouping of Parties: un-am-bi-gu-ous. We heard the IPCC scientist who highlighted Africa as one of the most vulnerable regions to loss and damage.

All of this underscores one clear message: we must now focus on addressing Loss and Damage.
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