Dear Mitigation Work Programme negotiators 

ECO addresses this informal summary of complaints to you:

You have been negotiating now for ten days. You have exchanged views on the dialogues, whether to have inf infs, how to interpret complementarity, and so on. Many views diverged. Others converged. This discussion may not have mitigated anything or been programmatic, but it was certainly work. A lot of work. 

On Wednesday morning, the co-facilitators attempted to capture Parties’ views in an informal note. In that sense, ECO wants to thank AILAC and South Korea, for reminding Parties on Tuesday how these informal notes feed into the process.

However, throughout yesterday, sessions disappeared from CCTV mysteriously. ECO learned that some usual suspects actively prevented this informal note from being introduced to the room. Although ECO definitely would have preferred a draft text, in its absence the informal note could have provided some basis to resume negotiations.

Then, when everyone finally got into the room, certain countries accused the co-facilitators’ summary of being illegitimate  – even after Secretariat lawyers provided legal advice that co-facilitators can prepare informal documents of their own motion.

ECO is disappointed to witness this level of mistrust and lack of transparency in the MWP space. Some called it a «toxic space»; at first ECO was confused, but now totally gets it. For different reasons though. 

Dear Parties, without substantive discussion the MWP cannot deliver. Unblock the room and allow for the needed exchange. Is it just that you are enjoying Bonn’s terrible coffee so much that you never want to leave?

Sincerely yours,

ECO