ECO Newsletter

The Fijian presidency has rightfully stressed that the operationalization of the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform is a critical outcome that must be delivered on at COP 23.

For more than 20 years, the UNFCCC has failed to allow indigenous peoples to have their voice adequately heard. This is despite the value of indigenous peoples’ experiences and traditional knowledge for mitigating and adapting to climate change in harmony with ecosystems. Recognising the need to strengthen the participation of indigenous peoples in the process and the value of traditional and indigenous peoples’ knowledge, Parties agreed in Paris to establish a Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform. They agree that this platform will deliver three functions: knowledge, capacity for engagement, and climate change policies and actions. Most importantly, the Platform will be operationalized at COP 23.

Parties have now only 5 days left to agree to the structure of this platform. These discussions must be guided only by two bases: ensuring the effective delivery of the three functions, and respecting the five principles laid out by the indigenous peoples Caucus — including the full and effective participation of indigenous peoples both in the design of the platform and its structure.
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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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In an ironic twist, loss and damage finance seems to be suffering from displacement. ECO hears that developed country delegates keep trying to shunt the issue of loss and damage finance into some mythical ‘elsewhere’, claiming that discussions on the WIM were not the right place for it. ECO reminds delegates that 2/CP19 is a passport for the WIM into the world of loss and damage finance – with a clear mandate for the WIM to ‘enhance’, ‘facilitate’, ‘mobilise’ and ‘secure’ finance for loss and damage.

Is a taskforce the answer to the thorny issue of where loss and damage finance belongs? With the right mandate — clear outcomes and timeframes, instructions to consider innovative sources of finance that go  beyond insurance, a budget to be effective, and an invitation for civil society to engage, it may well be. One thing is for sure – after four years of the WIM not addressing its mandate to enhance finance for loss and damage, something has to change.

ECO likes to recall success stories and is eager to replicate them. A big success story was the Structured Expert Dialogue (SED) under the 2013 – 2015 Review. The task of the SED was to consider new science (especially from the Fifth Assessment Report of IPCC) and send the new intelligence in a condensed way to the COP.

In October the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will adopt the Special Report on 1.5 degrees (SR1.5). COP 21 asked the IPCC to produce it in time for the Facilitative Dialogue at COP in 2018. The SR1.5 is a key instrument to start the implementation of the temperature targets agreed to in Paris.

ECO suggests two potential approaches on how to work with the SR1.5 in the Talanoa Dialogue and the COP — a workshop and a special event

The Talanoa Dialogue could include a workshop, very soon after the IPCC Special Report approval, so that in-depth exchanges could take place between the main authors of the IPCC SR1.5 and delegates from Parties and Observers. A report of the workshop could then be considered at SBSTA 49 (during COP24). To reduce costs and increase participation, the workshop and the additional intersession or the Pre-COP 24 meeting could happen back to back.
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Early Thursday morning, EU institutions reached a final agreement on the reform of the bloc’s carbon market for the period 2021 to 2030. Covering around 40% of EU’s greenhouse gas emissions from the energy, industry and aviation sectors, the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) is currently the largest cap and trade carbon market in the world. But with a notorious oversupply of pollution permits that has kept carbon prices hovering around 5-7 EUR/tCO2e for the past five years, the ETS has long been the region’s problem child. ECO remains disappointed at the new agreement.

A real reform of the system would have simultaneously slashed the enormous allowance glut, sent a strong decarbonisation signal to energy and industry, and made sure that auction revenues go to sustainable and clean technology. The success of the reform has to be judged on the delivery on all of these aspects.

It is now clear that the reform will not bring the scheme in line with the Paris Agreement climate goals or with mid-century decarbonization.  However, the EU did make some small improvements with regard to the permit surplus: For the first time, some unused allowances will not be released to the market and could be cancelled, potentially leading to a reduction of 2-3 billion allowances in the long term.
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ECO, with our usual nose-to-the-ground ability to stay up to date on the latest and greatest, has heard of an exciting new intervention in the loss and damage space. More than 50 civil society groups, and notable people, have just released a Climate Damages Declaration – calling on countries to agree on a two-year workplan to develop adequate and predictable sources of revenue for loss and damage finance, including a Climate Damages Tax.  What would a Climate Damages Tax be, we hear you ask?  It would be an equitable fossil fuel extraction fee – levied globally, but with developed countries paying the lion’s share for loss and damage. Countries on the frontline of climate impacts would use the Tax at home for climate purposes. Who would pay and who would receive the funds would be based on a sliding scale.

Why on earth do we need new sources for more money? Well, at some interesting side events yesterday, ECO saw a graph depicting current development/humanitarian/climate finance versus future needs.  And it turns out that tinkering at the edges, and a continued overemphasis on insurance, is not going to generate the scale of finance we need. We will instead need to think big with innovative sources of finance, such as a Climate Damages Tax.
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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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WHEN: Saturday, 11 November 2017 from 9:00 pm to 5:00 am 

WHERE: La Redoute, Kurfürstenallee 1, 53177 Bonn – Bad Godesberg.

PROGRAM: Concert at 10:00 pm by Makeda and Steal a Taxi, then DANCE PARTY with a DJ. 

Please be sure to bring your badge, as it is required to enter the party.

Should you have accreditation for only week two, kindly show your accreditation letter upon arrival to the security check. 

Please, do not forget to bring enough cash for the drinks and finger food. 

REMINDER: This party does not allow minors (under 18); the security might request your ID to check your age. The CAN Party has a zero-tolerance policy against all forms of harassment.  

 We look forward to conquering the night with you all!