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COP out?
15 Dec 2009
Will the doors slam shut at this highest-profile climate negotiations in Copenhagen this week? Will civil society, which has played such a constructive and vital role in the Conference so far, be left out in the cold by unjustifiable restrictions on access – well beyond the legitimate security needs of the Conference? Accountability and transparency […]
Loss and damage mechanism under threat
15 Dec 2009
Simple arithmetic: Low mitigation ambition plus inadequate adaptation support for developing countries results in unavoidable loss, damage and suffering for the most vulnerable! Any emission reduction and finance targets as well as legal format in the Copenhagen agreement must be open to periodic review (no later than 2014/2015). ECO wants to read in the shared […]
Fast trick financing?
15 Dec 2009
Remember the G8 summit in L’Aquila this year? World leaders proudly offered US$20 billion to tackle the global food crisis. Subsequently it was reported that only US$3 billion was going to be ‘new’ money. The rest had already been committed or was to be handed out as loans. This scenario makes ECO wonder: How much […]
Close the logging loophole now
15 Dec 2009
Most developed countries came to Copenhagen asking the world to ignore planned increases in greenhouse gas emissions from logging and erase them from the books. It was a proposal that never deserved to see the light of day at a climate conference. Now it has to be put to rest. The Climate Action Network has […]
Africa stands tall
15 Dec 2009
ECO did note one encouraging development at the start of the second week. The Africa Group dug in its heels in defence of the two-track approach, with most of the G77. Ministers considering the process proposal for the day perceived an agenda too close to the paper leaked early in the first week, which sought […]
CDM black market
15 Dec 2009
“I give you CCS in CDM if you give me forests in exhaustion in CDM” is one of the popular negotiation techniques that ECO observed over the past few days. Is this really how the UNFCCC seals its deals? ECO is seriously concerned that the “negotiators” forget that they don’t barter apples for pears. Possibly […]
Brazil emerges as leader
15 Dec 2009
In the fifth edition of the Germanwatch-CAN Europe Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI), Brazil climbed to fourth place, as Sweden slid down its LULUCF projected baseline and landed in fifth. As the top three places were left vacant, Brazil earned the top rank among 57 countries surveyed for the CCPI. At the other end of […]
Crunch time in Copenhagen
14 Dec 2009
As delegates return to the Bella Center today, they are joined by ministers and subsequently by heads of state/government. What issues should they focus on to achieve a fair, ambitious, binding and timely deal? ECO is glad you asked, because we have some very clear suggestions. Mitigation: On Saturday AOSIS again drew attention to the […]
Start funding the solution
14 Dec 2009
ECO is pleased to report that after years of searching, long term funding for climate finance has been found! But first we must pry it out of the hands of big oil and coal companies. G20 nations in Pittsburgh, at the urging of the US, pledged to phase out fossil fuel subsidies. This could create […]
Don’t bracket “Mother Earth”
14 Dec 2009
As the hallways of the Bella Center emptied on Saturday night, Shared Vision draft text negotiators and the Chair worked through the late hours. After three days of closed meetings, they finally managed to get through their first reading of the 32-paragraph text. (A surprising amount of debate time was spent on a proposal to […]