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It’s Money, Money, Money For Arab Group And India

Cabbage, clam, milk, dosh, dough, shillings, frogskins, notes, duckets, loot, bones, bar, coin, folding stuff, honk, lolly, moola. Any way you say it, it is always about the money!

This is also true for the Paris Agreement. It clearly states that all funds should be spent and invested in the right technologies, projects, and places that will both solve climate change and foster sustainable development. Aligning all financial flows with the Paris goals is absolutely essential to address climate change.

Island nations have proposed that the GEF and the GCF ask their trustee, the World Bank, to report what it is doing to ensure that their money is being invested in good, rather than harmful projects. Public money. Our taxes.
Unfortunately, the Arab Group and India are not fans. Surprisingly, they seem to prefer that the World Bank continues funding fossil fuels, fueling destruction of the same people the climate funds are supposed to help.

The Island States in the Caribbean were devastated when two category 5++ hurricanes – Irma and Maria – struck. In Dominica, the damages in economic terms are upwards of 100% of GDP.

Today AOSIS lost this battle.
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Tuesday Nov 14 was Gender Day and ECO attended several events highlighting the work of Pacific Women in climate change. Diverse activists shared voices, views, actions and campaigns. Pacific women have also worked as part of the broader Women and Gender (WGC) constituency group, ensuring all Parties and Observers are heard and are taking into account the WGC’s 19 key demands at COP23.

At a Pacific women-led Gender, Ecological and Climate Justice speak-out session on Monday, November 13, ECO engaged in frontline conversations with Pacific Women. Speakers travelled from Fiji, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Tokelau, Vanuatu, and other Pacific island states and territories to share their urgent climate justice messages with the world. These messages include: the need to do more of this work at every climate change intergovernmental space from national to global; to stop coal production and ensure a safe, just and urgent transition to low-carbon renewable economies; to finance loss and damage and adaptation funds; to ensure a strong and resourced Gender Action Plan to be taken seriously by every Party; to call for ambitious mitigation strategies to keep global warming under 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels; and to hear, affirm and resource gender-just climate solutions in every region and across the UNFCCC.
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The US, Australia, Canada and the EU receive the Fossil of the Day for refusing to get serious about loss and damage finance.

 

For all the policy geeks out there, while decision 2/CP19 provides the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage (WIM) with a mandate to ‘enhance’, ‘facilitate’, ‘mobilize’ and ‘secure’ finance for loss and damage, in the negotiating room, our fossil recipients, consistently refer it to the Standing Committee on Finance or even higher levels, where it is also absent from the discussion. Basically, they were seeking to twist, water down, and delete references to finance from the loss and damage decision text.

 

We would have thought that the US Administration – with its own territory of Puerto Rico still recovering from the devastation of Hurricane Maria – would, perhaps, have rediscovered at least one empathic bone in its body. But apparently, this was waaaaay too much to ask for; as it aggressively led the charge to delete references to finance in the loss and damage text. Some might think this level of intervention was a bit rich coming from a country that has talked about pulling out of the Paris Agreement, but it looks like they plan on taking others down with them.
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While countries are discussing how to implement the Paris Agreement to avert the worst impacts of climate change, the UN aviation body, The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), is having their own conversation on climate. The 36 members of ICAO’s Council have preferred to do it in private so they can make their own rules on their carbon market and alternative fuel sustainability criteria without making too much fuss.

Who wants to complicate the discussions, anyway? When it comes to carbon offsets and biofuels, the aviation industry must be deciding that it is easier to just accept them all and deal with the environmental and social consequences later.

 ECO is pretty impressed with the speed at which ICAO is checking off rules for their climate measures. We are going to have to figure out how to adapt when airlines start buying offsets and biofuels from countries with Paris pledges. Parties are counting all their emission reductions towards their climate targets. If airlines are claiming those same reductions for themselves then two targets are claiming one emission reduction. Doesn’t that invalidate one of the targets? We haven’t come up with any rules for dealing with that here yet … slow down ICAO you’re making us look bad!
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The Fossil of the Day goes to France for postponing its target for dropping the share of nuclear energy in its power mix. France therefore sends a bad signal on its ability to meet its already agreed to energy transition targets at home and its shift towards a 100% renewable future.

 

France, you’ve been doing good so far on the international stage! You helped shape the Paris Agreement at COP21, and since then you’ve been working to achieve ambitious outcomes at UNFCCC conferences. Congratulations on this — keep up the good work!

 

But guess what? Strong ambition at international meetings is not enough. “Making our Planet Great Again” also requires national policies that live up to international rhetoric. Backsliding from agreed upon commitments cannot happen if you want to remain the gatekeeper of the Paris Agreement.

 

Yesterday, your government announced that you would not honour your 2025 target of phasing nuclear down from 75% to 50% of your electricity mix, delaying your ambition from 5 to 10 years. This target was part of a law for energy transition, passed after 3 years of inclusive dialogue with French civil society and ahead of COP21. ECO reminds you that your newly elected President Emmanuel Macron made the promise to respect and implement the energy transition as such.
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