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Tarnished: Dirty Oil Smears Canada’s Reputation
4 Dec 2012
Canada’s environment minister, Peter Kent, arrived in Doha yesterday under the long shadow of the tar sands. Since Durban, his government has been working hard to dismantle Canada’s environmental protection laws to speed up resource extraction, an initiative that government has been promoting under the Orwellian slogan of “responsible resource development.” ECO has warned […]
Heros and Zeros: Adaptation Fund Facts & Figures
4 Dec 2012
More and more countries seem to recognise the progress and achievements of the Adaptation Fund in recent years. Progress so far was featured at a side event last Friday, held jointly by the Adaptation Fund Board. First the good news. Only two years after the first call for proposals, 25 concrete adaptation projects have been […]
Time to #endfossilfuelsubsidies
4 Dec 2012
Roaming in the halls of the QNCC, it’s not hard to hear the frustration from poorer countries lamenting the lack of climate finance. The only thing louder is the excuses from the richer ones, saying the money is nowhere to be found. Well, ECO has a solution! A new analysis from Oil Change International shows […]
Pre-2020 Ambition
4 Dec 2012
ECO thinks that the ministerial roundtable to increase pre-2020 ambition should first ensure that all ministers clearly understand why it is urgent and important to increase ambition by all parties with adequate support for developing countries. How about starting the roundtable with highlights of the UNEP gigatonne gap and the World Bank 4° C reports? […]
Closing the Loose Ends for Adaptation
4 Dec 2012
As COP 18 welcomes Ministers from around the world, ECO would like to focus their attention on significant matters related to adaptation. May we have your attention, Ministers: adaptation needs are closing in fast! National Adaptation Plans. These are intended to address medium and long term adaptation needs. Let’s keep this short and sweet: […]
MRV of Finance: What Could Be So Hard About That?
3 Dec 2012
ECO understands that progress on transparent reporting of climate finance is grinding to a halt. SBSTA was meant to adopt common tabular formats for reporting by developed countries of both emissions and climate finance. Now the process appears to be deadlocked with no immediate solutions in sight. Apparently, developed countries are opposing a key proposal […]
Civil Society’s Voice Being Marginalized
3 Dec 2012
ECO has been pondering the evident marginalization of the ‘civil society voice’ lately and started scribbling a few preambular thoughts on a serviette… Reaffirming that vibrant public participation “allows vital experience, expertise, information and perspectives from civil society to be brought into the process to generate new insights and approaches”1; Acknowledging the respectful, positive […]
Instructions Enclosed for Non-Negotiable Planetary Deadline
3 Dec 2012
Dear Ministers: This is the non-negotiable planetary deadline. The recent UNEP and World Bank reports have been unequivocal: the window to stabilize temperature increase below 2° C, and thus avoid the most dangerous climate impacts, is closing rapidly. Durban set a number of other deadlines for Doha which must be respected. They include adoption of […]
Thoughts from Lama, at her first COP session
3 Dec 2012
Before I begin, I want to draw to your attention that COP18 is my very first negotiation session. If you have ever participated in such a conference for the first time, you will understand well how I feel. Just the fact that you are in the process of participating in a conference where they […]
Something has to happen!
3 Dec 2012
COP 18 is another step in the climate change negotiations. There are a lot of expectations here and many issues need to be covered. Most importantly, a comprehensive decision has to be made in order to deliver what humanity needs in order to survive. This is something we hear all the time around climate […]