Blog
Search blog
ADP: Elements of Urgency and Action
21 Nov 2013
It was an all too familiar feeling when Parties started repeating their well-known positions and citing already agreed decisions here in Warsaw. But ECO does like the recent trend citing one key notion: urgency. AOSIS has made significant efforts to establish a concrete technical process to accelerate action on renewables and energy efficiency – that’s […]
Ontario Moves Beyond Coal
21 Nov 2013
After being subjected to the taste of coal in the air and statements about the inevitability of continued coal use for almost two weeks, at last we have exciting news from the Canadian province of Ontario. The provincial government has just announced it will switch off its last active coal-fired power plant within weeks. This […]
The CCPI 2013 Performance Rankings
21 Nov 2013
The new edition of the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI), which ranks the climate protection performance of the 58 largest emitting countries worldwide, was released by Germanwatch and CAN Europe this week. The report shows worldwide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions continue to climb, and not a single country is on track to deliver their fare […]
A Down Under Daydream
21 Nov 2013
ECO nodded off during the plenary and heard this: Dear Ministerial colleagues: It gives me great pleasure to be here with you at this High Level Roundtable on Market Approaches for Enhanced Climate Action. I want to report to you now that after 18 months Australia’s carbon market is working well. After the first […]
Fossil of the Day
21 Nov 2013
The First Place Fossil goes to India, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Malaysia, and China for proposing to delete the only reference to equity in para 9 of the ADP text. Equity is key to the 2015 agreement and Parties must leave Warsaw with a clear understanding of how the ex ante review will be conducted. We […]
Can this finance ministerial create the much bigger change the world needs?
20 Nov 2013
So here we are at the first ever finance ministerial. With the ‘climate crunch’ rapidly exposing our economies to the risks of climate change and economic downturn, the stakes have been raised. Parties have agreed on the need for action, put in place the institutions and frameworks, but there is one essential ingredient missing: finance. […]
What is the proper role for private finance?
20 Nov 2013
You may have noticed the developed countries’ increasing enthusiasm for having private finance substitute for their direct support as part of meeting the the promise of mobilizing US $100 billion per year by 2020. This year, two US-hosted ministerial meetings and the pre-COP finance discussions focused almost exclusively on the role of private finance, whilst […]
Adaptation Fund due for replenishment
20 Nov 2013
ECO wonders if developed countries are scheming to create suspense on the Adaptation Fund over the next couple of days, by orchestrating the announcements of their pledges to start with the lowest first: Norway’s US $2.5 million was announced yesterday. While that doesn’t quite compare to Sweden’s $30 million, we believe that every dollar counts. […]
Making the difference . . .
20 Nov 2013
Fill the Adaptation Gap Only a minor share of climate finance is currently being allocated to adaptation, meaning that vital support to the world’s vulnerable people and communities is lacking. Agreement must be reached to increase finance for adaptation, and a first step must be to improve the balance between mitigation and adaptation. COP 19 […]
Linking an FTT to scaled up climate action
20 Nov 2013
Where is the Finance (WTF) to fill the gap? Here’s one of many answers to that question, the Financial Transaction Tax (FTT). In early 2013, 11 EU Member States agreed to introduce an FTT that could generate revenues of €37bn a year or more, depending on its scope. While the FTT is still in in […]