Welcome to Madrid

2 December 2019

Dear Delegates,

ECO is glad you found
your way to Santiago de Chile Madrid. Rest assured, ECO will not forget
about the people of Chile and will closely follow the situation and update you.
But not only the location of COP25 has changed. Just like the IPCC 1.5°C
Special Report last year adjusted our frame of reference, so, too, have the
IPCC Special Reports of this year adjusted our measuring sticks by clearly
showing us that irreversible tipping points and climate impacts will hit even
faster than what we anticipated just last year.

Around the world,
millions of people have taken to the streets €” from Hong Kong to Bolivia, the
UK, Haiti, Iraq, Lebanon, Ecuador, and Chile €” demanding their right to a
better life. We are not only seeing the failure of big emitters to respond to
the demands of people, youth, and science but also a profound blindspot of the
inherent linkages between social, ecological and climate justice. The IPCC
1.5°C report robustly highlighted the need for governments to internalize these
connections and act on them. ECO knows relocating COP25 has created challenges
– but hopes you don’t even think about taking this as an excuse to
underdeliver. After all, Madrid’s official symbol is a bear rearing up on its
hind legs feasting on berries from the madroño tree, not a sloth burying its
head in the sand.

And there are several
berries ECO encourages you to reap in Madrid. COP25 is the perfect opportunity
to unpack your plans for raising domestic climate ambition in 2020 to bridge
the gap highlighted in the UNEP 2019 gap report. This is the difference between
what we need to do and what we are actually doing to tackle climate change.
From ECO’s point of view: a goal without a plan is just a wish! ECO, therefore,
recommends a clear timeline:

• Commit yourselves to update and revise your NDCs to be in line with
  the 1.5°C threshold, in the first quarter of 2020.
• Politely ask the UNFCCC Secretariat to assess, by 15 October 2020,
  the aggregate impact of updated NDCs submitted by 15 September, on projected
  global emissions and temperature increase.
• If you”ve spent some time in these halls you”ll agree: process
  matters and civil society and non-state actors are great partners in climate
  ambition and action. So, please, make sure to organize inclusive review
  processes when preparing your new NDCs back home. ECO believes it is crucial
  you show your citizens they can take part in enhancing their NDC.

But there is more: At
COP25, ECO expects the big and rich emitters to follow champions from the LDCs
and AOSIS and their commitments at the UNSG Summit: Use the ministerial events
to send clear political signals that you will respond to the climate emergency
and step up climate support to reach US$100billion by 2020.

And there is even more:
ECO (and maybe you as well) feels we raised the issue of Loss and Damage more
often than you will order tapas the coming two weeks. But when if not at COP25,
during the review of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage
(WIM) is the moment to start substantially addressing loss and damage by
providing new and additional finance? ECO – of course – has some suggestions
for you: Set up a financing facility and expert group under the WIM so that you
can deliver on your promise of support and action on the matter. In addition
(not instead) you may also establish a task force on loss and damage
under the SBs to elevate the topic politically and develop recommendations for
COP26.

ECO did not forget the rules
over all this. How could we after the showdown on Article 6 last year? But
there is so much more: ECO hopes parties continue to engage constructively in
the operationalization of the Enhanced Transparency Framework. And get your act
together and agree on five year common timeframes for NDCs €“ the earlier you
agree the easier it will be to include them in your NDCs. In the past, market mechanisms
undermined ambition and environmental integrity. So learn from history and
don’t repeat it. Only fools make the same mistake twice. Rules on Article 6 can
only be agreed if they avoid any form of double counting, ensure social and
environmental safeguards, especially the rights of indigenous peoples, and
phase out Kyoto credits. ECO is aware that constructive negotiation often means
getting the big picture right and not insisting on all details. But Article 6
is different €“ here the details make all the difference. Only by insisting on
the principles and details of robust rules, can a good outcome be agreed. So we
count on you, the EU, AOSIS, the LDCs, New Zealand €“ stand your ground and only
agree to an outcome with robust and strong rules that account for what is
actually emitted in the atmosphere.