Hi all,
Please find ECO below, for day 1 of the SB46 negotiations in Bonn.
For those who don’t know, ECO has been produced since 1972 as commentary to the environmental negotiations process.
Andres
Pick Up where we left off and keep your eyes on the ball
Dear Negotiators, welcome back to Bonn*.
Have you noticed a feeling of anticipation and excitement? Rumours from a big member of this community (let’s just say
the orange elephant in the room) are certainly fuelling that atmosphere.
But
let’s not spread any fake news. Instead, we’ll start off this edition
of ECO by sharing our hopes for a better tomorrow and a
brighter future
To
make good headway, you must focus on providing more clarity on the
operational guidelines that will make the Paris Agreement robust,
transparent and
inclusive (AKA the Paris rulebook). We need to come out of Bonn with a
good basis for a negotiation text ahead of COP 23, so that the rulebook
completed next year at COP 24. A timely delivery of this task will
ensure a strong framework that will foster increased
ambition over time.
Here in Bonn you can also lay the foundations for a great COP 23 under the Presidency of Fiji, and keep expectations high for an ambitious Facilitative Dialogue in 2018. This must be informed by science, and generate commitment from all countries to increase ambition by 2020, in order to get us on track for the Paris Agreement’s goal to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees.
Parties
must also show solidarity towards people at the forefront of the
impacts of climate change by making concrete efforts to support good
rules for
adaptation, resilience and capacity building, and by thinking hard on
how to operationalize the Paris Agreement’s adaptation goal. There also
needs to be clarity on accounting of finance, and on the ways and means
in which the US$100 billion will be mobilized
from 2020 onwards.
ECO is also convinced that delegates will help the incoming Fiji COP23
Presidency to
identify an appropriate approach to an issue very close to home. The
Pacific islands and many others around the negotiation table are already
suffering today from loss and damage, and a COP23 without strong
attention to addressing this issue is unthinkable.
This
is also the opportunity to set the right incentives. Markets should not
create perverse incentives for unambitious NDCs, or for shifting
reductions from one place to another.
Instead, they should raise ambition, encourage broader NDC coverage
and prioritise and elaborate key principles of environmental integrity
and accounting.
Parties really must walk the talk on transparency. Discussions must remain transparent, so that the perspectives and expertise of civil society can inform the process, and the principles of public participation and transparency must be built into the rulebook.
Bonn
is the place where you can show the world your government's firm
commitment to act on climate change, by advancing work swiftly. The
Paris Agreement
is bigger than any one country. Getting it off the ground to cut
emissions and save lives must remain the focus of all your attention. We
need your leadership against all odds.
*still just Bonn - soon to be a tropical paradise - stay tuned to learn more about this magical transformation.
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Moving beyond the unpredictable
ECO
wonders if negotiators watched the 2017 jaw-dropping moment at the
Oscars when La La Land was mistakenly considered the winner for best
picture.
Poor Jimmy Kimmel seemed to not know where to hide his face. That
unpredictable moment when Moonlight was announced as the winner really
seemed to have shocked those who watched that world event. These days it
just seems that unpredictability is all over the
place and that the unexpected seems to haunt reality.
ECO sees unpredictability as one of the biggest challenges facing climate change and negotiators at this Bonn session.
At
COP22, developed country Parties presented their commitment
to deliver US$100 billion per year by 2020. But announcing this was just
the first step.
Now the question is how do we create a system where climate finance is
genuinely predictable and adequate, as well as reported properly,
transparently and, accurately.
ECO
hopes Parties in Bonn will define modalities that promote clarity and
enhance transparency. That they will make sure that there
is better reflection
of actual support, better reflection of climate relevance in reported
figures, and sufficient details and consistency across countries in
reporting. All this will help in making finance more predictable.
Because if we cannot trust what is reported as climate
finance, then it is difficult to know if we are on track towards $100b.
ECO
is also concerned about the Adaptation Fund. We expect negotiators to
agree that the Adaptation Fund has plenty of experience when operating with developing
countries in need of small-scale adaptation projects. And that it
deserves immediate replenishment in the pre-2020 period while the Green
Climate Fund (GCF) resolves its shortcomings and operational problems.
It is definitely not the time to engage in unnecessary
political battles that may delay the required work necessary for the
Adaptation Fund to serve the Paris Agreement.
On
this same topic, ECO is also looking for developed country Parties that
will become immediate champions and will provide political and
financial support
to this important institution as acknowledged in recent submissions to
UNFCCC.
Transparency, accountability a
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Taking stock of the Global Stocktake and more
ECO
is pleased to see the rich inputs from parties contained in the various
submissions on the issue of the Global Stocktake (GST). The GST is the
most crucial component
of the Paris ambition ratcheting mechanism in which the “collective
progress” towards the purpose of the Paris Agreement is to be assessed.
And yet it is a new idea and it requires creative thinking to make it
function effectively.
ECO
is intrigued to see some of the common themes emerging in the Parties’
submissions. For example, AILAC, China, EU and Japan point out that the
GST is not a single
event but it should be treated as a process. Others are also in
agreement with this as their submissions suggest that the GST should
consist of both a political, or leadership, component and a technical
component. The GST exercise deserves a well-planned process.
In
addition, some Parties (AILAC, AOSIS, Canada, China, EU and Japan) also
stressed the role of the GST in identifying opportunities for further
collaboration. ECO
believes that taking up such opportunities and increasing individual
and collective ambition is one of the key outcomes that the GST must
deliver. Unless progress is made on the GST design here in Bonn,
it could end up being a talking shop that does nothing to close the gap
to 1.5°C (as the “best available science” shows we must).
Finally,
ECO is also heartened to see submissions point out the importance of
the inputs from non-state actors. Together with other constituencies,
civil society is
ready to make inputs and work collaboratively to make the GST a
success.
With
Parties clearly having done some homework on the GST, ECO is very
optimistic that we will see some good progress here in Bonn, especially
on those challenging-yet-important
issues that have not yet received much attention, for example on how
equity will be operationalized, or how we can assure that the GST leads
to a closing of the emissions gap. Rest assured, ECO will chime in with
its own ideas over the next two weeks – watch
this space!
----
Despite
repeated requests, observer organisations were denied the chance to
participate in, or nominate experts for, the APA workshop on
transparency (as well as
to the workshop dedicated to adaptation communications). We would
therefore like to remind parties what the word TRANSPARENCY means:
TRANSPARENCY - trans·par·en·cy : the quality of
being done in an open way without secrets (Cambridge Dictionary)
We sincerely hope that the parties will make sure that the APA negotiations will resume in a transparent manner.
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