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To Ministers: A Few Tips For a Real Support Package
12 Dec 2018
Dear Ministers, Guess what, it’s already week 2, day 3! ECO knows that time flies when you’re having fun; but let’s stay focused. You will be faced with one of your biggest challenges since COP21 in the coming days: making sure the Paris Agreement will benefit from a fair, balanced, and complete Rulebook that will […]
12 Years Left
11 Dec 2018
Today, the political phase of the Talanoa Dialogue begins, starting with Ministerial Roundtables. ECO is looking forward to hearing Ministers tell stories from the real world – sharing views on the significance of the IPCC special report on 1.5o (SR1.5) and how this COP needs to respond. In honour of the Oceans Action Day, which […]
Five Years of Procrastination
11 Dec 2018
The Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss and Damage (WIM) celebrated its fifth birthday yesterday. On such an auspicious occasion, let’s look back on its achievements. The WIM was set up with three elements to its mandate: i) enhance understanding; ii) facilitate coordination; iii) enhance action and support (aka finance). It’s made some gains on the […]
Climate Finance – A Handy Cheat Sheet for the Busy Minister
11 Dec 2018
ECO overheard on several occasions €” even at the plenary yesterday €” some alarming conversations between negotiators and Ministers. After three years, there still seems to be some confusion of two very different notions of “finance” in the context of climate ambition! So, in an attempt to help out busy Ministers (and negotiators, as and […]
Lessons From the Pre-2020 Stocktake
11 Dec 2018
Yesterday, a handful of Ministers from developed and developing countries met in Plenary ÅšlÄ…sk to discuss the need for enhanced action pre-2020. This is, of course, because the levels of climate action and emissions reductions until now have been, and continue to be, woefully inadequate. The same can be said about finance and other support […]
Ministers, Let’s Be Disruptive
11 Dec 2018
ECO hopes that Ministers had smooth travels, lots of rest and have now settled down in Katowice ready to deliver strong messages during the High-Level segment taking place today and tomorrow. If Ministers are looking for further inspiration, ECO is happy to help. Yesterday was International Human Rights” Day. So, what if, today, Ministers decided […]
OMG(E)! Article 6 is Going Above and Beyond Offsetting!
11 Dec 2018
Acronym’s abound in the UNFCCC process, and here’s another one… O-M-G-E stands for “overall mitigation in global emissions.” Say what?! The mechanism referred to in Article 6.4(d) of the Paris Agreement: “shall aim to deliver an overall mitigation in global emissions.” Yes, it’s wonky. So, let us try again: This is a mandate to reflect […]
Fossil of the Day
11 Dec 2018
FIRST PLACE: AUSTRIA It looks like we have some new bad boys in town! Now, they aren’t the usual suspects, but that doesn’t mean they are well behaved. So much so, that they may be getting a bit of coal in their stockings this Christmas. Today’s first place Fossil goes to Austria! The EU Council €” […]
IPCC SR1.5 – It’s Not Over Yet
11 Dec 2018
ECO “welcomes” the majority of Parties who stood up for “welcoming” the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C in the SBSTA plenary on Saturday. Because of objections from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the USA and Russia, the draft text for SBSTA L.19 document merely says Parties “take note of the IPCC SR 1.5” instead […]