ECO Newsletter

While getting ready for COP25, ECO was energized by the upcoming discussions on the review and renewal of the Lima Work Programme on Gender and its Gender Action Plan. Why? Because if there is one thing you don’t need to argue for it is that fighting for gender justice and climate justice are two sides of the same coin. So, ECO expected to see Parties ready to aim higher, building on the work achieved over the past few years to advance the centrality of gender equality to the UNFCCC and climate action.

Alas, on Tuesday, ECO learnt the hard way that nothing should ever be taken for granted ⎯ not even the opening statements from the Paris Agreement! Yes, you read that right. Among the 196 Parties who four years ago committed to “respect, promote and consider their respective obligations on human rights, (..) as well as gender equality, empowerment of women” when taking action to address climate change, some now have second thoughts and have bracketed such references in the draft decision text proposed by the co-facilitators. Are we really here to renegotiate the principles of the Paris Agreement? No – ECO doesn’t think so.

ECO urges Parties to think twice before going into the nitty gritty line-by-line negotiations of the text – and instead articulate a vision about what it is that we want to achieve with this updated gender framework and how.
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“I gotta feeling, 

That this week we will make good progress

That this week we will think of workers

That this week we’ll discuss diversification 

Ouh! 

I gotta feeling, 

That countries will adopt the workplan

And the forum will share best practices

And contribute to more climate ambition!”

Wow, well this morning, ECO feels like singing! 

Yesterday, ECO saw countries engage constructively on their first negotiations on the adoption of the six-year work-plan for the forum on the impact of the implementation of response measures. They agreed to streamline a work process that has been delayed by one year. And it’s particularly encouraging that all countries agreed in principle, to allow observers to stay in the room during the two hours of informal negotiations that took place yesterday. 

ECO also finds it encouraging when countries decide to address, in the most honest way, issues related to just transition and economic diversification. In a climate-changing world, these are not easy discussions. They can be painful because change means there will be some losers. But for the global community to work together to hold the global temperature rise below 1.5^°C, cooperation among and within countries will be essential to ensure that the transition is fair, equitable, inclusive, and responsive to gender, class, and race, and disabled people.
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Dear delegates,

Today, at the Stocktake on Pre-2020 implementation and ambition, you will have one of the last opportunities to reflect on how well (or how badly?) you are doing in meeting your 2020 targets. One of them is the climate finance goal of US$100 billion a year that developed countries promised to provide and mobilise by 2020. With the deadline looming large, three things need to be foremost in your minds ⎯ and your interventions during the session:

Time to acknowledge and bridge the adaptation finance gap. On the last count only around a fifth of the overall climate finance provided and mobilised went to adaptation. Despite repeated commitments to balance adaptation and mitigation finance, you, developed countries, are still failing to respond to the growing needs of vulnerable populations on the frontline of the climate crisis. The Pre-2020 Stocktake is your chance to fix this, by committing to urgently increasing your adaptation finance. Making new pledges to the Adaptation Fund would not be such a bad idea.

Time to be transparent and fair. Today, we expect you to say that you will meet the USD100 billion goal… but let’s be honest, if you do, it will be entirely on your own terms and much of what is being counted should not be – “clean” coal and non-concessional loans to name two examples.
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Today and tomorrow, COP25 will see some focus on pre-2020 implementation and action in the Stocktake on Pre-2020 Implementation and Ambition, with the technical part today and the high-level part tomorrow. 

According to the concept note for the Stocktake, “all Parties share the view that pre-2020 implementation and ambition are of utmost importance”. We have a hard time believing that you all really feel that way. 

In the pre-2020 period, you, the Parties

have had the chance to get the world on track to avoid catastrophic climate change and the resulting loss and damage to people, particularly in vulnerable countries. 

have invited the IPCC to help us establish sound scientific knowledge on the impacts and risks of climate change, and the need to combat it. 

have seen report after report demonstrating the co-benefits of climate action, including for poverty reduction, equality, pollution, health, and more. Early action would have even been more cost-effective. 

Also in the pre-2020 period, have brought us promises, and speeches. You have not brought the necessary emission reductions and finance. 

What you, the Parties, have not had in the pre-2020 period is the political will and courage matching the challenge we face, to stand up to those who want to continue profiting from climate-destroying practices, and stand up for those vulnerable people facing devastating losses and damages.  
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Is the COP facing a déjà vu mom ent? As Typhoon Kammuri threatens the Philippines, are we about to see a repeat of the devastation of Typhoon Haiyan in 2013? It was Typhoon Haiyan’s impact on the people of the Philippines that mobilized global cooperation around the urgency to respond to irreversible loss and damage due to climate change. COP19 responded after lengthy negotiations with a decision to establish the Warsaw International Mechanism (WIM) on loss and damage, a political response to a human catastrophe caused by climate change.

Six years later at COP25, we are at another watershed moment. The review event of the WIM that took place the day before the COP began clearly recognised that the outputs of the WIM should be greater than the outputs of the Executive Committee (ExCom) alone. The review also recognised the lack of progress to date. Apart from some promising work under the Task Force for Displacement, the rest of the ExCom work plans are sadly far behind from where we need to be. So, what needs to change to unlock the potential of the loss and damage process in order to respond to the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable?
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It can be all too easy to accuse UNFCCC negotiations of being somewhat lofty and distant from the issues on the ground. But we’re pleased to share that the Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture (KJWA) is proudly bucking that trend with a workshop this week on a topic that goes in the opposite direction…

Yes, friends. We’re having a workshop on MANURE. Really.

Specifically, it’s on “improved nutrient use and manure management towards sustainable and resilient agricultural systems”. ECO knows this may sound hilarious to the urbanites among you. But folks with their hands in the soil know that this topic underpins the future of food security and climate stability. It may not be glamorous, but it’s incredibly important.

Half a century of industrialised agriculture has pushed our climate and ecosystems to breaking point. Energy is needed to produce synthetic nitrogen fertilisers. This is primarily from the burning of fossil fuels, and the resulting nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide emissions when these are produced and applied to soils are contributors to the climate crisis. Soils degraded by application of these fertilisers hold less water and natural nutrients and leave crops more vulnerable to climate impacts. Industrial agriculture is no longer fit for purpose in an era of climate change, and it must be transformed.
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ECO can’t remember how often we have told Japan’s minister to stop coal.  The science is clear that new coal is not compatible with the Paris Agreement’s goal of 2°C, let alone 1.5°C.

Japan came to Madrid empty-handed with no policy change ⎯ again! Even worse, just yesterday, Mr. Kajiyama, Japan’s Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry said Japan wants to keep using coal power. Japan’s pursuit of coal expansion both domestically and internationally is totally insane. 

Japan is wasting billions of dollars on new coal plants overseas. The Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) is considering financing Vung Ang 2 and possibly Vinh Tan 3 in Vietnam. The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) continues to support coal projects such as Indramayu in Indonesia and Matabari in Bangladesh. Japan says it supports coal if it meets the conditions of using highly efficient technologies and at the request of host countries. The old narrative that these projects are cleaner than older coal plants does not stand. The projects that received Japanese public financing emit far more air pollutants than would be allowed in Japan. But, with ANY conditions, coal is coal and it is still bad.

Japan’s domestic coal expansion also poses serious problems.
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