ECO-Spectations for the Bangkok Session

4 September 2018

Since Bonn SB48, we have not stopped asking ourselves how to go through all the confusion of co-facilitator notes, intertwined and interlinked between politics and technicalities. Admittedly, to escape negotiation purgatory as soon as possible, we were hoping to see a clean text with clear options, as a result of the Co-Chairs” work feeding into Bangkok. This hope was not fulfilled by the Co-Chairs, and a lot of the heavy lifting still lies ahead of you, Parties. But you know what they say: no pain no gain. Together with the note by the Presiding Officers of the APA and the SBs, the APA tools can help provide an agreed basis and speed up the negotiations for all Paris Agreement work programme items, reflecting clear and streamlined options, and with sufficient details for the outcome of the session to be swiftly turned into a draft decision text.

ECO’s recommendations for Bangkok are simple: Keep calm and work on the implementation guidelines as if their robustness had direct implications for future heat waves, droughts, storms, losses of lives and livelihoods, and the destabilization of societies.

While the rules that you produce will be an important cornerstone of the COP24 outcome, to ensure real success, a collective ambition is crucial. At the COP, we are looking forward to an inspiring Talanoa Dialogue High Level Ministerial Roundtable. Bangkok is not that far from Katowice, and we all know that failing to prepare is preparing to fail. From our side we expect the Talanoa Dialogue to kickstart a process for delivering enhanced NDCs for submission in 2020. Do not forget that the Paris decision already stated clearly that the world needs to save many more gigatons of emissions than the current NDCs project. During Bangkok we also expect the Presidencies to enter a dialogue with Parties and observers to achieve more clarity on the run of the show in terms of content, input, output(s) and overall organisation of the Talanoa Dialogue High-Level Ministerial Roundtable.

You might be still asking the 100 billion dollar question: with a robust rulebook and the successful Talanoa Dialogue, what is the missing piece to ensure the full and fair implementation of the Paris Agreement? Yes, it is finance. And while you managed to make finance discussions extraordinarily slow in Bonn, you might want to use Bangkok as the opportunity to finally address the question in a constructive way. Good news is, ECO has two simple pieces of advice to help you provide Real Money for Real Action. First, build trust now that your existing commitments will be met and accounted for in a transparent and robust way. Then, look ahead and lay the groundwork for scaled up, sustainable and more predictable climate finance, including through the upcoming GCF replenishment.