ECO Newsletter

Indigenous Peoples with Disability are affected first and worst by climate change – from floods, fires, and climate disasters that claim our lands and our lives, to eco-ableist climate action that advocates for a future where our communities are erased.

The SustainedAbility Disability & Climate Network have been working for the establishment of a Disability Constituency for many years now, and the support of allies across civil society has been instrumental in finally getting this Constituency on the agenda. We thank you for your support and solidarity.

The deep allyship demonstrated by the Indigenous Peoples Constituency in this fight for our recognition and space within the UNFCCC is particularly noteworthy and appreciated. Any emerging Disability Constituency must centre Indigenous Peoples with Disability and prioritise marginalised people with Disability. 

It is therefore fitting that the flagship event for the Disability Caucus centres on this important intersection, sharing the experiences of Indigenous Peoples with Disabilities in the face of climate change, as well as sharing how this knowledge and these rights movements can be a source of strength in  advancing real solutions to climate change.

The event, Stories and Solutions: Indigenous People with Disabilities Share our Stories for Climate Impact takes place today from 10am – 11:30am in the Indigenous Peoples’ Pavilion. 
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Is this the summit where world leaders with a ghoulish climate record show up disguised as climate champions? But ECO also looks forward to hearing from some real champions:

In fact, in Scotland it was customary at Halloween to not get ‘treats’ for simply showing up in costume, one had to actually perform (songs). Please pay some respect to the local culture and deliver.

Many, in particular, rich nations and big emitters see the need for Loss and Damage finance as clearly as on a foggy Glasgow Halloween night without a lantern. So let ECO shine some light: COP26 must respond to climate-induced losses and damages across the world and deliver political recognition of the need for additional financial resources for this. Globally, we have entered the era of Loss and Damage. For ECO this will be the litmus test for COP26. Not responding to the realities of financing needs for Loss and Damage means failure.

Next, if you really want to frighten people this Halloween season, show them the newest IPCC Assessment Report. The UN Secretary-General rightly calls it “code red for humanity”. However, the G20, the biggest neighbours on the block, have not given much candy. They are promising good things but are capable of so much more.
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Now at 1.2 degree Celsius of warming above pre-industrial levels, climate change is already causing havoc in countries around the world. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres declared the latest IPCC Climate Report a ‘Code Red for Humanity’, highlighting already overstretched and limited coping capacities.

Loss and Damage – the impacts of climate change that were not averted or minimised through adaptation and mitigation activities – is already a lived reality for people around the world, violating their human rights and displacing more than 30 million people in 2020 alone. Poor and vulnerable countries and communities are least responsible for climate change but are already facing the majority of its negative impacts.
The projected economic cost of loss and damage by 2030 is estimated to be between US$ 290 and 580 billion annually in developing countries alone. Scaled up new and additional finance at a level commensurate with the need is therefore essential for vulnerable countries and communities to recover from the climate impacts they are already facing and to rebuild their livelihoods and economies. While finance for averting and minimising Loss and Damage has been mobilised in the form of finance for mitigation and adaptation, finance for addressing Loss and Damage remains lacking, apart from highly insufficient humanitarian aid.
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Over the past few months, the COP president, Minister Sharma, recognised that a fully inclusive conference was a prerequisite for success, and committed repeatedly to ensuring that COP26 would be the most inclusive COP ever organised. ECO emphatically agrees.

The presence of civil society and Indigenous Peoples in the negotiations is essential for the legitimacy of the outcomes adopted at the COP.  Public scrutiny is also critical to challenge the status quo and help Parties achieve more ambitious outcomes. Given the massive gaps in ambition acknowledged ahead of COP26, it is clear that this positive pressure will be needed more than ever if this COP is to make any real progress.

Yet, without any prior notice, civil society and Indigenous Peoples delegates learned on the first day of the COP that unprecedented restrictions will severely restrict observers’ access to the negotiating rooms. During the high level segment, civil society was almost entirely barred from accessing the plenary hall, being relegated to cafes and hallways. This left many wondering whether it would be worthwhile to come to the conference center at all over the coming days.

Observers were even unable to access a workshop on…wait for it…transparency — despite earlier reassurances that virtual participation would be guaranteed.
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Since 2009, rich nations have over and over again promised to deliver US$100 billion per year by 2020. Yet over and over again, they have kept on failing. 12 years ago, the same year The Black Eyed Peas released I Got a Feeling, these wealthy nations set expectations and they failed. This is not someone else’s promise. This is their own promise. Developed countries love the world to acknowledge their efforts. They seek praise when they come to the venue. And every little thing they do, they just love to make a show of it. But you know what? They are not The Black Eyed Peas.

The song that developed countries have tried to get us to sing lacks tuning, rhythm and I got a feeling everyone but them is just tired of listening to it. Just last week, the Climate Finance Delivery Plan published by Canada and Germany showed that yet again governments have failed and will not achieve the $100bn goal until 2023, which actually means that we will only know in 2025 if their projection becomes reality. Not a word on adaptation. Nothing on loss and damage.

If developed countries want to make this the COP of enhanced action they first need to prove they know that global action only happens if all countries can participate.
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Like cramming the night before a big exam, the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has rushed out a last-minute net zero plan five days before this conference with no new policy and no accountability. 
This so-called plan is what Mr. Morrison proudly calls the ‘Australian way’. But anyone who has been to the last 25 COPs knows the Australian way is to block, destroy and delay negotiations and undermine global ambition.

 
Australia’s current plan has net zero ambition and will have net zero impact.

    
Instead the world can expect ever-growing coal and gas mining – maintaining Australia’s position as the third largest exporter of fossil fuels behind Russia and Saudi Arabia.

    
The success of these critical negotiations depends on climate laggards like Australia putting aside their tricks and committing to real action.

    
Australia is yet to commit to halving emissions this decade (as most other developed countries have done), has refused to sign up to the Global Methane Pledge, refuses to re-join the Green Climate Fund and has resisted calls to phase out coal power.

    
In fact, Australia has opened three new coalmines in the last month and there are at least 20 new coal projects and three new gas basins in the pipeline.


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The Brazilian delegation has offered to help clear up some confusion about its Article 6 positions. The delegation has noted that some negotiators and observers of limited imagination have had difficulty understanding how a country with an economy-wide emissions reduction target in its NDC could also have emissions reductions “outside its NDC”.
The Brazilian Head of Delegation admits that the concept can’t be easily explained or understood. However, the delegation and certain parts of Brazil’s government and economy are totally committed to the concept, especially because of its usefulness in justifying exemptions from inconvenient “corresponding adjustments” or CAs. While some argue that CAs are necessary to avoid double counting of emissions reductions and to make sure carbon accounting corresponds to how much carbon humans emit to the atmosphere, Brazil would like us to believe that nothing could be further from the truth.
The Head of Delegation has been insisting that Brazil is ready to be flexible in reaching agreement on Article 6 at COP26. He notes that Brazil has already shown considerable flexibility, including conceptual flexibility that challenges traditional and outdated notions of emissions accounting that hold that there is nothing “out there” beyond economy-wide targets in terms of emissions and emissions reductions.
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On the morning of October 20, five young people began a hunger strike outside the White House to demand that President Biden deliver on his commitment, made in the US NDC, to reduce emissions 50-52% by 2021. Despite health challenges, the hunger strike continues on to its 13th day for four of the youth. The strike follows a week during which thousands of Indigenous leaders, faith and racial justice leaders, and climate advocates peacefully marched the streets of Washington, D.C., to protest Biden’s loyalty to fossil fuels over people.

ECO brings a message from the peaceful protesters and hunger strikers for President Biden as the leaders’ summit begins – We have to do as much as possible, as quickly as possible, now!

Meet the Hunger Strikers

Kidas is 26 years old from Dallas, Texas and is fighting for everyone who died during the Texas freeze earlier this year. Julia, 24, is also from Texas, and says, “We have abused mother-nature for too long, our communities are hurting. I do not want this earth to die the way I already see my neighbourhoods suffer every day.” Abby, 20, is from Pennsylvania, and last week bravely confronted US Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia, who receives income from the coal industry and whose state is a top coal and dirty gas producer.
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