ECO Newsletter

Dear Delegates,

Some of you might have read the famous Harry Potter books and may remember thinking: ‘How implausible to create a story where a bunch of children have to show up at the government ministry to warn adults about the dangers threatening the very existence of their world!’

Well… it’s 2019 and much has happened since 16-year-old Greta Thunberg spoke at COP24. Last month, 1.5 million young people took to the streets of 120 countries, refusing to accept inaction on climate change. The climate emergency is here – and young people are telling us it’s time to act!

ECO is glad many of you want to contribute to climate action at SB50 and – you would have never guessed – we have some great advice for you. From now on, no meeting of governments on climate can be business as usual. SB50 takes place just before a series of international meetings –  MoCA, G20 Summit, the Abu Dhabi meeting, and the G7. Keeping these events in mind and working towards the UNSG Summit, the GCF replenishment meeting and COP25, ECO wishes to see many informal and formal conversations on expectations and plans to deliver political progress in three key areas: Support, Climate Impacts, and Ambition.
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Just recently, Cyclones Idai and Kenneth killed more than 1,000 people in Mozambique and neighbouring countries, forcing the sixth poorest country in the world to take on an extra US$118 million in debt. The climate crisis’ impacts are increasing, and it is imperative that the international community start addressing them adequately.

Six years after its establishment, it is high time to fully operationalize the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage (WIM), by putting in place a finance arm and by agreeing on new scalable sources of finance. The review of the WIM that Parties will perform at COP25 needs to fulfill its promise to enhance action and support.  For that, Parties need to engage in a full-fledged discussion on the availability of finance to address loss and damage (L&D) beyond adaptation and similar finance provided, the needs of vulnerable countries, and potential sources to reduce the gap between the two. 

At SB50, ECO would like to see Parties agree on the terms of reference for this review, ensuring it is fit for purpose and enables the WIM to meet its objectives and fulfill its functions. This needs to include whether (i) the mechanism is meeting the challenge of loss and damage currently faced by vulnerable developing countries, and (ii) if it is capable of meeting future loss and damage needs.
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For nearly 30 years climate negotiators have been focused on building a global climate regime that can leverage the ambitious action we need to limit emissions, the resulting climatic disruptions, and to respond to unavoidable impacts. Although there is still some work to be done, the rules are now largely in place. 
The time has now come for climate negotiators and their governments to direct a laser focus on the primary reason the UN Climate Convention and the Paris Agreement were created – limiting warming and facilitating fair and ambitious climate action to reduce emissions and protect and enhance sinks. After all, everything that has been done for the past three decades has been either to lay the groundwork for this effort, or to deal with the impacts and consequences of our failure to act fast enough. 
So let’s get on with it!
This means, first and foremost, taking every opportunity to ensure that the central instrument of the Paris Agreement – Nationally Determined Contributions – live up to their world-changing potential. NDCs 1.0 clearly have a lot of bugs and are not up to the task. It’s a no brainer that every country must revisit their plan and prepare to submit a revised version by 1 September 2020 at the latest, in line with their fair contribution to putting the world on a 1.5°C  path.
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