*[Enwl-eng] [can-eecca] ECO - Thursday, June 27

[ENWL]

Don’t Go Far Off

ECO is thinking of the great Chilean poet Pablo Neruda as we look forward to 
visiting ‘El Pais de los poeta’ - the land of poets. As Neruda said, “Don't 
go far off, not even for a day, because --  because -- I don't know how to 
say it: a day is long and I will be waiting for you, as in an empty station 
when the trains are parked off somewhere else, asleep.”

And while we haven’t seen much great poetry in SB50’s draft decision texts, 
ECO is happy to help out as we head towards Santiago.

ECO did have great hopes that Parties would at least agree on a deadline for 
adopting a decision on common timeframes and summarizes (very poetically) 
the draft conclusion on this agenda item for you:

And thanks to some Parties,
They decided right there and then,
The best thing to do,
Was to meet again and again.

To be clear, ECO believes that Parties need to come to a decision on 
five-year-common-timeframes at COP25. And therefore to Chile we say — we 
welcome your leadership and expect you to take us to adopting a decision in 
beautiful Santiago.

ECO appreciates the hard work of negotiators on the Article 6 text.
Let us put what we need in crystal clear prose: phase out Clean Development 
Mechanism credits, adopt strong social and environmental safeguards, avoid 
double-counting and include corresponding adjustments for all transfers. 
However, ECO is concerned that to some decision makers, the text agreed at 
SB50 might be as challenging as a dadaist poem to make sense of. ECO, 
therefore, hopes the Pre-COP in Costa Rica delivers a good basis for a 
decision on robust rules in Santiago.

ECO is not sure if the ‘gentleperson’s agreement’ that kicked off 
discussions on the IPCC resembles a tragedy or absurdity. Or maybe even 
both? Starting from its ridiculous and offensive title, it is the kind of 
old-fashioned patriarchal story which never should have been written - like 
the Twilight novels. By not allowing a substantive discussion, Saudi Arabia 
clearly violated its part of this shady deal. To ECO, it's obvious that if 
you stand with science, then you reject this gentleperson’s agreement.

The authors of common reporting tables (the common tabular formats), on the 
other hand, might not win a Nobel prize for literature with their work, but 
let’s admit it, on busy days you sometimes enjoy less drama - so kudos for 
the constructive and tireless work.

And for those working on the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and 
Damage, the work has just begun with a new call for submissions. ECO hopes 
countries take less time than George R.R. Martin is taking for the Game of 
Thrones novels and submit their views well in time for ministers to have an 
informed discussion at the pre-COP in October.

The big finance story, while not present in the agenda, is pretty present in 
everyone’s minds: it’s the GCF replenishment. We are looking for those 
heroes that will make the best of the next Board meeting and adopt great 
decisions that will improve the functioning of the fund.  ECO will remind 
contributor countries again and again that at least doubling their 
individual pledges is the least we expect in order to enhance ambition, 
regardless of other discussions happening at the board level. Also remember 
we are one year away from the magic moment, where developed countries should 
have mobilized USD$100 billion in a transparent way. Finance might seem all 
over the place once again, but we know that without predictable support, 
increasing ambition will not be possible.

ECO does not want to leave you without at least one more fabulous quote from 
Neruda who wrote: “You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring 
from coming.” Your leaders are invited to New York to come with actions to 
address the climate crisis we are in. If they do not deliver what the people 
and the planet need, we will hold them accountable and ensure there are 
consequences. With Pablo Neruda in mind and apologies to Game of Thrones 
fans: Spring is coming.
------
Over all the Talk About Paris – Don’t Forget to Ratify KP2!

We find ourselves in a paradoxical situation. The first paradox is that the 
world’s glaciers are now moving quicker than the Parties to the UNFCCC. The 
Greenland ice sheet has started doing something we were expecting it to do 
in 2090. Meanwhile, a large number of countries still have not done what we’ve 
expect them to do since 2014. Slow and steady just won’t do when we’re 
trying to honour treaties we have created to fight the climate emergency. 
Now you’re moving slower than a glacier.

Remember the table below, Parties? We welcome Kuwait, Lao People's 
Democratic Republic, Lesotho, Mongolia, Montenegro, and Paraguay - 
countries, who have all ratified the Doha Amendment to the Kyoto Protocol 
(KP2) since COP24. We also welcome the references to the need for the entry 
into force of the KP2 made in sessions such as SBSTA item 6 on matters 
relating to science and review. Given how much importance Saudi Arabia puts 
on this matter and how it’s an opportunity to hold developed countries to 
their commitments, ECO hopes to be able to welcome Saudi Arabia as a KP2 
ratifier in the very near future. Can we get this done pre-2020?

We still need 16 more Parties to sign up to reach the threshold of ¾ of 
Parties to the KP to secure entry into force. This is where the second 
paradox comes in: there is an overflowing pool of excellent candidates that 
could fill the 16 countries gap. Some of these countries are amongst the 
most vocal on the urgent need for Doha ratification - as you can see from 
ECO’s helpful table. So what are you waiting for - step up and walk the 
talk!

Remember also that failure to ratify and implement the KP2 sets a worrying 
precedent for the Paris Agreement and other international treaties.
-----
Your 101 Guide to Ambition

Parties [and political leaders] are clearly still struggling with the notion 
of ambition, despite all the guidance provided to them by the IPCC, NGOs, 
think tanks, the UN Secretary General, Greta Thunberg, and despite the 
increasing need to address impacts of climate change all around the world.

ECO has lost count of how many times we’ve said that science’s role is to 
inform ambition. And we’re not referring only to the IPCC Special Report on 
1.5°C. New scientific studies (which missed the SR1.5 deadline for 
consideration) remind us that climate change could be happening faster than 
we originally thought. One recent example shows that if emissions remain 
unabated, Greenland’s ice will melt at higher rates than initially expected. 
The climate forecasts are now up to 80 percent higher than previous 
estimates of 35 inches (89 cm) of sea level rise. Europe is again this 
summer experiencing a heat wave - all you need to do is to step outside of 
the conference halls for a bit of empirical research.

ECO has talked a lot about it, but since we’re not seeing ambition from you, 
we feel the need to unpack what we mean by climate ambition. Bluntly put, we 
want a credible and solid response to the climate emergency from all 
countries based on their different capacities and resources. A response to 
the demands of youth and the public outcry would include the following 
elements:

Mitigation: we need significantly enhanced NDCs that are 1.5°C compatible, 
ready for implementation, reflecting the country’s long-term strategies, and 
informed by science and in line with equity. The term "mitigation" itself 
can hide what's really needed. Fossil fuels are the largest cause of the 
climate crisis. So in order to be ambitious you need to set goals to rapidly 
phase out the extraction and burning of fossil fuels and invest in a just 
transition to 100% renewable energy. You need to set ambitious short-terms 
targets of halving CO2 emissions by 2030. Developed countries should move 
fastest and assist developing countries. Justice and equity are essential to 
making this work. ECO wonders what is holding you back? ECO thinks it’s your 
lack of political will rather than the availability of technological 
solutions.

Tackle the impacts: ah, you thought mitigation was all you had to do. But 
no, we also want increased support and means of implementation (aka finance, 
capacity building, and technology) for adaptation and for addressing loss 
and damage to the vulnerable developing countries, its people, and 
ecosystems.

When considering new ambitious climate initiatives ECO encourages you to 
think about restoring ecosystems and protecting existing ones. Protecting 
and restoring biodiversity rich ecosystems can close around one third of the 
mitigation gap and will strengthen adaptive capacity and resilience in a 
climate changed world.

And there is actually more: ECO would like everyone to be involved at all 
levels. Your national climate plans should be built with and for your entire 
society. It therefore needs to come with public participation (which is also 
a human right), accountability (willingness to hold other countries 
accountable for meeting their pledges) and gender responsiveness.


Luckily for the planet, this year you have more than one opportunity to 
increase your climate ambition and show leadership! It’s not only about the 
COP in Chile in December. In September, at the UNSG Summit, ECO would want 
to see meaningful commitments that put us on a climate safe path by 2020. 
“Bring plans, not speeches,” said UN Secretary-General Guterres. We’re with 
him for the Summit. For COP 25 and beyond, we need plans, we need 
transformative action.

-----
 Article 6 Wrap-up: How to Fly Above the Hot Air

On this final day of SB50, ECO would like to remind Parties about the 
importance of strong environmental integrity provisions in the Article 6 
rules.

It is fundamentally critical that emissions transfers under Article 6 
prevent double counting. Article 6 can only work properly if the rules 
ensure that double counting is avoided both in 6.2 and 6.4, and that 
corresponding adjustments are applied for mitigation outcomes both inside 
and outside the scope of a host country’s NDC. This must apply regardless of 
where the credits are used - i.e. for NDC and non-NDC purposes alike.

ECO continues to hear from some Parties that corresponding adjustments for 
mitigation outcomes used toward purposes other than NDCs — like aviation’s 
carbon market, the ICAO CORSIA — are not important. ECO strongly disagrees. 
Leaving non-NDC adjustments out of the picture could punch a hole in the 
Paris Agreement the size of an A380 jumbo jet.

And if Parties allow Certified Emission Reductions (CERs), Assigned Amount 
Units (AAUs) or Emission Reduction Units (ERUs) to transfer over without any 
conditions, it would punch a hole in the Paris Agreement big enough for a 
whole airline’s fleet. Allowing activities and methodologies from the Kyoto 
Protocol mechanisms to carry over without conditions would widen that enough 
to add another airline’s fleet! Why would Kyoto Protocol credits be bad for 
the system? It’s simple physics. It’s hard to get lift-off with “hot air” 
all around you.

The environmental integrity of the mitigation outcomes under Article 6 is 
fundamental as well (e.g. emission reductions need to be real, quantified, 
additional, permanent, and verified). On the issue of whether mitigation 
outcomes are real, ECO is highly concerned with the possibility of non-CO2e 
metrics being used and converted into CO2e values for trade between Parties 
with NDCs measured in different metrics. The potential to game this 
conversion process seems enormous.

Environmental integrity for Article 6.4 (and under baseline and crediting 
systems that might fall under Article 6.2) means adopting strong rules for 
setting baselines. Baselines should be set conservatively, well below 
business as usual. They could also integrate principles of “best available 
technology” (taking into account specific geographical conditions) and/or an 
ambitious policy trajectory. Baselines should also be dynamic over time.

Voluntary cooperation under Article 6 should enhance mitigation, adaptation, 
and sustainable development, and Parties should make the operationalization 
of “overall mitigation in global emissions” a mandatory process.  Enhancing 
sustainable development doesn’t happen on its own, either. We need clear 
human rights-based environmental and social safeguards, including meaningful 
public participation, and a strong independent grievance mechanism to 
address harms if they do occur. A share of proceeds for the Adaptation Fund 
is critical as well.

ECO thanks negotiators for their hard work at the session. We hope you’re 
able to look at the good, the bad, and the ugly to achieve better alignment 
at the Pre-COP, and be ready to adopt strong rules for environmental 
integrity and sustainable development in Santiago at COP25.
-----
Climate Finance Abracadabra – ECO’s Watching You!

ECO is watching how developed countries progress on their climate finance in 
light of the annual US$100bn goal. One way to keep track of the direction of 
provided mitigation and adaptation finance is using the climate-related 
development assistance as reported to the OECD’s DAC, even if the climate 
finance reported to the UNFCCC doesn’t necessarily match this data. ECO is 
fully aware of some challenges already identified with the methodology. 
Different analyses have shown that there is a significant over-reporting in 
applying the Rio Markers, which indicate the level of climate relevance. For 
example, indicating that the ‘principal’ objective (Rio Marker 2) of a 
project is either adaptation or mitigation relevant, means 100% of the 
budget will be counted as climate relevant. When giving a project Rio Marker 
1 (‘significant’), 40 to 50% of the project is usually counted as climate 
finance (OECD member countries’ practice varies), even though it can have 
only little detectable climate relevance.

Where the European Commission, Sweden, Norway and others are scaling the 
Rio-marker 1 ("Significant") with 40%, these “coefficients” differ across 
countries from 0% (Portugal) to 100% (Japan, Luxembourg, Greece, Slovak 
Republic, Slovenia, Poland and Iceland). This is a sad example of the lack 
of common reporting standards among OECD member states. Unfortunately, most 
of these countries did not indicate their coefficient (in BR3), except 
Iceland and Norway. The source for the other countries is the OECD-CPI 
report from 2015.

This over-reporting thus leads to an artificially-high amount of overall 
reported climate finance. The future common tabular format needs to 
explicitly include a column showing the climate-specific part of the budget 
for the projects.

ECO has looked closer at 2017 figures, the most recently available ones, 
reported to OECD/DAC (based on funding commitments) and has found 
interesting results. There seem to be some magicians in certain countries 
which have managed to massively increase the finance reported with the 
climate markers. Most interesting are the reported numbers on adaptation and 
the increase in projects marked with Rio Marker 2. The reporting from Italy 
shows a 5-fold increase. EU institutions (excluding the European Investment 
Bank) — the largest contributor in absolute terms—had an increase of more 
than 70% in 2017 compared to 2016. So can we assume that in one year the EU 
institutions have increased their 100% adaptation-relevant projects by 70%? 
The list of other donor countries that increased their funding by more than 
100% includes Norway, Spain, Portugal, Poland and Luxembourg.

ECO would applaud if these numbers reflected an actual increase in 
adaptation finance from these countries. However, as we approach 2020, some 
countries might feel the need to round up some numbers to ”fulfill” the 
US$100bn target. Developed countries will get to their next climate finance 
reporting under the UNFCCC by the end of 2019, and the OECD/DAC numbers are 
one important input to that. ECO suggests that developing countries ask 
their counterparts whether this is real money or just advanced (almost 
magical) accounting exercises. How has this increase in climate finance been 
felt on the ground where it is highly needed? Navigating the climate crisis 
would be a lot easier if reported support actually reflected the real world.
------
 ECO Calls Out Saudi Arabia for Bullying Conduct, Parties for Their Silence

Last Friday, ECO witnessed a negotiator from Saudi Arabia repeatedly bully 
and intimidate the female co-facilitator at the SBSTA informal consultations 
on SR1.5C. While a Party is entitled to express its views, this Saudi 
negotiator’s vociferous personal demands for an apology or admission of 
wrongdoing from the facilitator is entirely unacceptable—and tantamount to 
bullying and harassment.

What is more, no other Party in the room spoke out to oppose the Saudi 
conduct and stop the out-right harassment.

Sadly, these moments where Parties freely intimidate others and bystander 
Parties remain silent are neither rare nor openly acknowledged during 
climate negotiations. It feeds into the pervasive and toxic culture of 
discrimination against women that the UNFCCC’s 2018 “Code of Conduct to 
address harassment at UNFCCC Conferences” was precisely designed to 
combat--and that we as a community do not tolerate.

The Saudi negotiator’s behaviour and bystander Parties’ silence are acutely 
problematic because they contravene the very values that the Paris Agreement 
espouses: equity, respect for human rights, gender equality and the 
empowerment of women. As a climate community, practicing these values means 
standing up against bullying, harassment, and any other forms of abusive 
treatment and violence against women and all delegates within the walls of 
the UNFCCC space.

In response, civil society members have lodged a formal complaint reporting 
the Saudi negotiator to the UNFCCC for breaching the Code of Conduct 
regarding harassment, which explicitly expresses that meetings should be 
held in a professional, respectful and harassment-free environment.

We, as civil society, do not tolerate such reprehensible aggression. The 
question remains whether other Parties will stand with us as well.
----
You Couldn’t Even Agree on a Deadline...

What’s at the heart of the Paris Agreement? For ECO, it is the NDCs. In 
Katowice, Parties discussed many topics related to the structure and content 
of NDCs and reached agreement on some items, such as the information 
necessary for clarity, transparency, and understanding. However, there’s a 
glaring gap - what will be the time periods for the NDCs?

Yes, Parties agreed to apply common time frames for those NDCs to be 
implemented from 2031 onward. But the most important outstanding issue - the 
length of the time frames — is still outstanding! Given the range of 
divergent views, ECO knew Parties wouldn’t agree on that substantive issue 
here but hoped that Parties would at least be able to set a deadline for a 
decision. Alas, no decision…!

ECO reminds delegates that a substantive outcome on this issue in Santiago 
is necessary. Planning an NDC can be a lengthy process and it is crucial 
that Parties know early on what the timeframe is going to be. There is no 
reason to delay a decision. Let’s be honest, we all procrastinate on our 
homework until we have a deadline that gets us to buckle down and accelerate 
our work. 

And (in case you’ve forgotten since Saturday’s issue), ECO firmly believes a 
single five-year time frame is the best solution to avoid locking in low 
levels of ambition, harnessing rapidly evolving real-world opportunities, 
and synchronizing better with five-year cycles of the broader Paris climate 
regime (i.e., NDC communication, global stocktake, etc). ECO calls on the 
Presidency to help deliver a decision at COP25.

-------
Let it Grow!

With the complexity of GHG fluxes in the land sector, it is often difficult 
to see the wood for all the trees. So let’s go straight to the root of the 
issue: some groups - notably, the forestry sector - claim that young, 
rapidly growing trees are the best at soaking up carbon from the atmosphere, 
and that using wood harvested from such plantations for furniture and 
building construction can lock away large quantities of carbon. Such false 
solutions are myths that disingenuously position the forestry industry as a 
key ally in the fight against climate change.

The truth is that trees only reach their maximum “carbon carrying capacity” 
many decades, and sometimes even centuries, into their growth, and that 
harvested wood products, on average, store only a fraction of the carbon 
contained in a living tree.

But don’t despair - there are real solutions! Proforestation is a process 
that allows older forests to continue growing to reach their biological 
sequestration potential. A newly published paper finds that protecting 
existing natural forests and allowing them to grow offers far superior 
mitigation value and significant co-benefits compared to plantation forests, 
such as nutrient cycling, water regulation, and pollination. Proforestation 
applies to all forest types.

We cannot afford to miss out on immediate mitigation opportunities in 
boreal, temperate and tropical landscapes. ECO therefore strongly be-leafs 
Parties should recognize the huge climate mitigation potential in their 
natural forests, with potential to close around one-third of the emissions 
gap, and calls on Parties to scale up forest protection and restoration.

In the (slightly adapted) wise words of Elsa - “Let it grow, LET IT GROOOW! 
[hair flip] The plantation myths don’t bother me anyways.”




-----

The Day After Tomorrow - Prepare for an Ambitious WIM review


ECO has observed that loss and damage negotiators have been working hard 
here to find an agreement on the Terms of Reference (ToR) for the review of 
the Warsaw Mechanism. The heatwave in Europe hopefully has inserted pressure 
to come to an agreement (hm...is that the reason why “one party” did not 
accept reference to the IPCC reports? Given the overwhelming real-time 
impacts of climate change happening now everywhere, this Party may have 
found the IPCC reports no longer necessary…? ECO does not at all support any 
rationale that aims to disregard the IPCC!).

Now it is time for negotiators, when they arrive home the day after 
tomorrow, to get prepared for the next round of submissions — wherever you 
may spend your holidays, you may find inspiration from some relaxing.

ECO would have loved to see the ToRs being more clearly guided by the needs 
of vulnerable countries, its people and ecosystems, for whom the WIM has 
been set up. But even after so many years in the process, ECO still learned 
something new: the review will take place even in the absence of the ToRs. 
So in case Parties do not manage to agree on the ToR, each Party could 
proceed on its own discretion. Agreed ToRs are of course much more 
preferable!

So, ECO will look for the submissions to speak more clearly to options to 
provide the resourcing to both the WIM and to vulnerable countries to 
confront, and recover from, losses and damages associated to the impacts of 
climate change.

ECO would like to encourage everyone to submit their views early, before the 
Pre-COP, so ministers can come well-informed and advance the review 
discussions on the political level. There would be no excuse not to involve 
ministers in a targeted manner on the WIM review. A strong WIM outcome would 
constitute a key element for a successful COP25!

And finally a reminder in particular to big emitters: the more your revised 
NDCs and your climate actions will be compatible with 1.5°C, the less you 
have to worry about others claiming loss and damage finance from you!

-----
Will Finland Save the EU’s Reputation?

Climate is a clear priority for Finland, who takes over the presidency of 
the EU Council this Monday. At the national level, Finland is aiming high: 
to be carbon neutral by 2035 and to achieve net negative emissions shortly 
thereafter. Respect! Finland also supports increasing the ambition of the EU’s 
NDC to -55% by 2030 (from 1990 levels).

In fact, ECO hears that one of Finland’s main presidency priorities will be 
to strengthen the EU’s position as a global leader on climate action. And if 
not now, then when?

What matters now is significant emission reductions in the short-term. The 
UN Secretary General puts it very clearly in his call for the Climate Action 
Summit in September: unless we cut global emissions in half by 2030, we will 
not be able to avoid devastating climate impacts. He calls on the EU to 
improve its severely inadequate 2030 target and reduce emissions 55% below 
1990 levels by 2030. ECO agrees that would be an improvement, but believes 
the EU can consider doing even better and move to cut emissions at least 65% 
in order to contribute its fair share of reaching the 1.5°C target and 
respect the Paris Agreement’s objectives.

Historically, the EU has often been there, at crunch times, to push global 
climate ambition forward. ECO can’t believe that the EU would really 
consider going to the Climate Action Summit empty-handed!


-30-
-- 

Andrés Fuentes


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-- 

Best regards,
Tatiana Shauro
I support #FridaysForFuture. Lets Unite behind the science.



Communications Department
Regional Campaigns Communications Officer EECCA
(Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia)
Climate Action Network-International (CAN)
Skype: samaparodia
tshauro at climatenetwork.org
https://www.facebook.com/tatiana.shauro.3
www.climatenetwork.org
www.facebook.com/CANInternational
Twitter: @CANIntl
Subscribe to the ECO newsletter: http://climatenetwork.org/eco-newsletters


From: Tatiana Shauro
Sent: Thursday, June 27, 2019 5:45 PM
Subject: [can-eecca] ECO - Thursday, June 27
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