ECO Newsletter

After a successful decision at COP23 concerning the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform (LCIPP), negotiations on the LCIPP have been stalled on multiple fronts since the negotiations first started in May at Bonn session.

In Katowice, several key issues arose during this first week. Of particular concern was the largely undefined concept of “Local Communities”, who are not currently recognised by the UNFCCC as a constituency. Late last evening, Parties and Indigenous Peoples finally reached consensus on the LCIPP, following intense trilateral negotiations between key Parties and Indigenous Peoples.

The final decision includes maintaining a balance between Indigenous Peoples and states on the Facilitative Working Group which will be mandated to develop the work plan for the platform and its functions: strengthening and sharing of traditional knowledge; creating synergies with other bodies both within and outside of the UNFCCC; and supporting Parties and Indigenous Peoples engagement in the UNFCCC.

The International Indigenous Peoples’ Forum on Climate Change and Parties celebrated this momentous decision with the final informal session this morning. It also happened, perhaps in a happy coincidence, on Indigenous Peoples Day – the day set aside to highlight Indigenous Peoples involvement in climate action.

The next activities of the Platform will take place in June 2019, including a thematic in-session workshop in Bonn focused on enhancing the participation of Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples; and the first meeting of the Facilitative Working group – the first Constitutive body that has equal representation between Parties and Indigenous Peoples.

Climate change is a matter of science and facts, not beliefs or opinions. The science is clear and the facts linked to climate change – like typhoons and droughts – have been so devastating that both secular and faith communities take up their stand to urge political leaders for ambitious climate action.

ECO highlights that after over two months of walking from the Vatican through seven countries, the Climate Pilgrimage participants have arrived in Katowice to call on the Parties at COP24 to respond to the recent IPCC report and take ambitious action to keep global warming to 1.5°C, in accordance with the Paris Agreement. Simultaneously, an Ecumenical Climate Pilgrimage from Bonn, has arrived in Katowice, also calling for bold action.

The Climate Pilgrimage consists of pilgrims from Asia, the Pacific countries, America and Europe, who have walked 1,500 km (nearly 950 miles) to draw the world’s attention to the dire effects of climate change already affecting their homes. For these pilgrims, climate justice is a personal matter. Some of the pilgrims are survivors of Typhoon Haiyan, a storm linked to climate change that killed over 6,000 people in South East Asia. One of them, AG Saño, dug the bodies of 72 of his neighbours from rubble in the wake of the storm while his brother, Yeb Saño, led the Philippines’ delegation to COP19 in Warsaw.

With a flurry of new texts, ECO was hopeful that Parties had made good progress. But upon closer examination, ECO is very worried. Not content to undermine ambition alone, backsliding continues to broaden its reach to the whole rulebook. With each new APA text, ECO’s worries grow.

Where are the rights? Where are non-party stakeholders? Where are indigenous peoples? Where is gender? Food security? Just transition? Intergenerational equity? Biodiversity and ecosystem integrity? Just three years after the Paris Agreement was adopted, it seems Parties are suffering from amnesia.

Luckily, ECO is here to remind you: the success at COP21 did not come only from the fact that the Paris Agreement got all countries on board to tackle the climate crisis. It also came from the fact that they agreed climate action should be people-centered and rights based. Yet, three years later, mentions to human rights have mysteriously disappeared from the entire text of the rulebook. References to gender are equally elusive, including as it relates to adaptation, an area Parties explicitly agreed must be gender-responsive.

And then there’s participation. The participation of non-party stakeholders in nearly every APA agenda item is critical. ECO is watching carefully, and with concern as references to participation of non-Parties progressively disappears or finds itself almost all alone in brackets.

In Vanuatu, we relish the good things in life. We in the Pacific Islands love the oceans and the forests of our natural environment, we are raised by our customs, and respect our traditional way of living. We see things and do things in our island fashion, the way that our ancestors, our grandparents, and our parents taught us. With respect for the land we live in, we take good care of our environment. With respect for our future generations, we preserve the resources our environment gives us.

The local woven basket symbolizes unity in Vanuatu. Made with pandanus leaves and centuries of time-honed skill, our baskets are more than tools for storing and carrying food – they reflect the beauty of our mothers and sisters and they keep our local knowledge to be later shared with our children and grandchildren. Our baskets tell the story of our traditional relationship with our environment. The natural world provides us with what we need, and we sustain and enrich our lives with those resources, weaving our culture and stories in harmony with our environment.

We do not have the term “climate change” in our local languages, but we are affected by it as people and as a nation.

Switzerland

Does anyone know what all the fuss is in Katowice? It’s the 24th conference of the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Just checking that you all know what you are actually attending.

Unfortunately, when negotiations on climate finance accounting opened on Tuesday, Switzerland stated that according to their reading, the terms “New and Additional” (named so due to the new and additional changes climate change poses) did not make it into the Paris Agreement. Why is this important? Developed countries provide new and additional finance, which is required by developing countries to make action possible.

The basic challenge, and argument, is that if climate funds are not new and additional, developed countries can just relabel ordinary Official Development Assistance (i.e. ‘double’ or ‘triple’ dipping). That means that there is a risk that other development topics such as human rights, gender, education, health care, are getting less attention. And, there should also be a concern for Least Developed Countries (LDCs). There is a general trend where climate finance is focused on mitigation in emerging economies. That means that funds can be shifted from education in LDCs to mitigation in China, for example. But hey, you could argue that it’s not only Switzerland!?

The transfer of innovative climate technologies should help developing countries leapfrog straight to growing in a clean and resilient manner, while addressing issues of sustainable development. The Technology Mechanism has had a head start implementing the Paris Agreement and ECO was happy to see the achievements so far at the Mechanism’s side event as well as events on the work of the Climate Technology Centre of Network (CTCN) and Technology Needs Assessments.

Yet, in the negotiations of the Period Assessment of the Technology Mechanism here at COP24, ECO has seen Parties taking a jump backwards; trying to shirk their responsibilities under Article 10 of the Paris Agreement, in which paragraph 6 clearly states that “support, including financial support, shall be provided to developing country Parties for the implementation of this Article”.

How can Parties expect developing countries to respond to the stark warnings from the IPCC 1.5 SR , to both rapidly cut GHG emissions in the next 12 years and adapt to the serious impacts of global warming, if they actively deny developing countries the fair opportunities and support to utilise the most appropriate and transformative technologies to leapfrog to inclusive and green growth?

ECO implores Parties to rekindle their cooperative spirit, and finalise negotiations under Article 10 here in Katowice; ensuring adequate support for gender-sensitive collaborative technology development to enable developing countries to leap towards resilience and prosperity, rather than being drowned by our rising seas.