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The Day After Tomorrow – Prepare for an Ambitious WIM review
27 Jun 2019
ECO has observed that loss and damage negotiators have been working hard here to find an agreement on the Terms of Reference (ToR) for the review of the Warsaw Mechanism. The heatwave in Europe hopefully has inserted pressure to come to an agreement (hm…is that the reason why “one party” did not accept reference to […]
Will Finland Save the EU’s Reputation?
27 Jun 2019
Climate is a clear priority for Finland, who takes over the presidency of the EU Council this Monday. At the national level, Finland is aiming high: to be carbon neutral by 2035 and to achieve net negative emissions shortly thereafter. Respect! Finland also supports increasing the ambition of the EU’s NDC to -55% by 2030 […]
Don’t Go Far Off
27 Jun 2019
ECO is thinking of the great Chilean poet Pablo Neruda as we look forward to visiting “El Pais de los poeta” – the land of poets. As Neruda said, “Don’t go far off, not even for a day, because — because — I don’t know how to say it: a day is long and I will be […]
Over all the Talk About Paris – Don’t Forget to Ratify KP2!
27 Jun 2019
We find ourselves in a paradoxical situation. The first paradox is that the world’s glaciers are now moving quicker than the Parties to the UNFCCC. The Greenland ice sheet has started doing something we were expecting it to do in 2090. Meanwhile, a large number of countries still have not done what we”ve expect them […]
Your 101 Guide to Ambition
27 Jun 2019
Parties [and political leaders] are clearly still struggling with the notion of ambition, despite all the guidance provided to them by the IPCC, NGOs, think tanks, the UN Secretary General, Greta Thunberg, and despite the increasing need to address impacts of climate change all around the world. ECO has lost count of how many times […]
Article 6 Wrap-up: How to Fly Above the Hot Air
27 Jun 2019
On this final day of SB50, ECO would like to remind Parties about the importance of strong environmental integrity provisions in the Article 6 rules. It is fundamentally critical that emissions transfers under Article 6 prevent double counting. Article 6 can only work properly if the rules ensure that double counting is avoided both […]
Climate Finance Abracadabra – ECO’s Watching You!
27 Jun 2019
ECO is watching how developed countries progress on their climate finance in light of the annual US$100bn goal. One way to keep track of the direction of provided mitigation and adaptation finance is using the climate-related development assistance as reported to the OECD’s DAC, even if the climate finance reported to the UNFCCC doesn’t necessarily […]
ECO Calls Out Saudi Arabia for Bullying Conduct, Parties for Their Silence
27 Jun 2019
Last Friday, ECO witnessed a negotiator from Saudi Arabia repeatedly bully and intimidate the female co-facilitator at the SBSTA informal consultations on SR1.5C. While a Party is entitled to express its views, this Saudi negotiator’s vociferous personal demands for an apology or admission of wrongdoing from the facilitator is entirely unacceptable€”and tantamount to bullying and […]
You Couldn’t Even Agree on a Deadline…
27 Jun 2019
What’s at the heart of the Paris Agreement? For ECO, it is the NDCs. In Katowice, Parties discussed many topics related to the structure and content of NDCs and reached agreement on some items, such as the information necessary for clarity, transparency, and understanding. However, there’s a glaring gap – what will be the time […]
Let it Grow!
27 Jun 2019
With the complexity of GHG fluxes in the land sector, it is often difficult to see the wood for all the trees. So let’s go straight to the root of the issue: some groups – notably, the forestry sector – claim that young, rapidly growing trees are the best at soaking up carbon from the […]