Up until now, the Joint Contact Group (JCG) on the 2013-2015 review has done an excellent job in its Structured Expert Dialogue (SED) in absorbing new and relevant scientific intelligence from the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report. When it comes to drawing any conclusions from all of the science though, the JCG is still only discussing procedural issues, like timing of the next SED.
Yes, ECO wants SED sessions at all SB sessions for gathering information from sources other than AR5. SB42, though, should be restricted to JCG only so that it can concentrate on its assigned task: to review the adequacy of the long-term global goal and overall progress towards achieving it. The SB42 session should be reserved for text work in order to prepare decisions for Paris as input into the ADP and to the COP.
To help, ECO suggests that:
– Parties conduct a stocktaking in the JCG at COP20 to capture the relevance of the information gathered from the IPCC AR5 during the SED.
– The JCG sends a strong signal to Workstream 2 of the ADP that the overall progress towards achieving the long-term goal is “off track” and that urgent action under WS2 is required for taking us to a 1.5°C pathway.
– Parties discuss a process to communicate the results of the JCG’s work and the new scientific intelligence collected during the SED sessions.
– The JCG urges the IPCC to urgently conduct more research on scenarios to reach a below 1.5°C target.
