CAN Intervention: SBI Closing Plenary, COP26

Globally, We have entered the era of loss and damage and therefore feel we must repeat that COP26 must

• Decide to provide sufficient and needs-based Loss and Damage finance, in addition to the 100bn dollars per year. Loss and Damage finance must also be included in the post-2025 climate finance target.
• Establish a process to identify the scale of funding needed to address Loss and Damage as well as suitable mechanisms to deliver the finance to developing countries. The outcome must be presented at COP27.
• Support developing countries in enabling national level systems to distribute Loss and Damage finance to ensure country ownership, gender responsiveness and self-determination. This could be facilitated by the fully operationalized Santiago Network for Loss and Damage.

In addition, COP26 needs to deliver on the 1.5-degree limit. To this end, the cover decision of COP26 must therefore

• Recognize the importance to limit warming to 1.5C
• Recognize relevant scientific reports assessing the emissions gap & the urgency of stronger action to limit global warming to 1.5C
• Commit to raising mitigation ambition for 2030 emissions reductions
• Commit to phase out fossil fuels
• And mandate the UNFCCC Secretariat to produce an updated annual NDC synthesis report, to be released prior to COP27 and COP28

CAN is extremely disappointed that human rights language was deleted from the final text of the decision on the Glasgow Work Programme on Article 12 of the Paris Agreement. It is unacceptable that the work programme that promotes public participation, access to information and climate education does not mention human rights explicitly. We also regret the limited access that observer organizations were given during the consultation process contrary to the usual practice for ACE negotiations. We have heard strong statements by more than 10 countries denouncing this – we look up to them to ensure that the Action Plan that will be adopted in June acknowledges the centrality of human rights in climate action, and includes activities that promote rights-based, people-centred climate action. We call on all Parties to ensure that human rights are not be treated as a bargaining chip during the remaining negotiations next week.

Finally, CAN expresses strong concerns on the issue of inclusivity at this COP. We travelled to this COP in order to participate meaningfully and support negotiations towards ambitious outcomes. However, our participation has been constrained since the first day of the COP by a range of restrictions – many of them unprecedented and not related to the COVID situation. The UK presidency must use the next five days to ensure that the voices of civil society and indigenous peoples representatives are heard in the negotiations.