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12 Years Left: What Have You Done to Respond to the SR1.5
10 Dec 2018
The SR1.5 report is a game-changer and Parties cannot leave Katowice without responding. And how, dear Ministers, does ECO think you should respond? With nothing less than a COP decision in which countries commit to strengthening their NDCs no later than 2020. You will be attending many high-level events this week on pre-2020 ambition, finance […]
Money Monday
10 Dec 2018
Welcome to smoggy Katowice, dear Ministers. As you set foot into the Spodek and join the more than 25,000 people participating at this COP, you might quickly notice we were expecting you. Normally, the 2nd week of COP represents mostly political moments. However, you will quickly realize this year is different. Five days before the […]
Voices From the Front Lines
10 Dec 2018
Reindeer herding has long been a central part of Saami culture. Unfortunately, temperature changes are increasingly devastating this tradition: it’s more and more difficult to find food for grazing and many animals have perished from diseases. Sanna Vannar, a 22-year-old Saami living in the Arctic Circle comes from a traditional reindeer herder family. She is […]
F. M. C. P.
10 Dec 2018
We know we”ve raised it before, but this is really important. The facilitative, multilateral consideration of progress (FMCP) will only be effective if it builds on the expertise and perspectives of civil society. ECO is asking Parties to allow observers to participate in the FMCP under the Paris Agreement’s enhanced transparency framework. Since ECO was […]
The U.S. Fossil Sideshow
10 Dec 2018
Today’s official U.S. side event promoting fossil fuels is bound to attract a lot of attention – after all, the U.S. is the only party which officially intends to quit the Paris Agreement. While it is obvious that any event promoting greater fossil fuel use has no place here at COP24, ECO readers should keep […]
12.5 Months to Go, but Pre-2020 Is Not Going Anywhere
10 Dec 2018
Ludwig never thought he’d look back fondly on the times of the Warsaw Polish Presidency, with visions of abundant WiFi and plenty of seats, tables and plug sockets in the donut- shaped COP19 venue. These dreams were shattered. Instead of finding ready spaces for civil society (and anyone else who does not have megabucks or […]
Are We Being Gaslit On Loss and Damage?
10 Dec 2018
There are several ways to make a person doubt themselves. One insidious way to do it is gaslighting: psychologically manipulate someone, or a group of people, making them question reality, and even their own sanity. We”ve seen examples of such behaviour from the Trump. Within the climate negotiations we have our own set of gaslighters. […]
Fossil of the Day
10 Dec 2018
Introductions can be kind of important, don’t you think? We use them to connect to people in a “Hi, how are you?” way, or in documents to give a sneak peek at what the text has in store for the reader. Sometimes they are relevant in treaties… Wait, just sometimes? That can’t be right. Saturday’s […]
Dear Parties…
10 Dec 2018
Dear ECO: We”ve been coming to UNFCCC meetings for 24 years, but we still are not on track to stop climate change. Why is reaching our climate goals so hard? €“ Sincerely, Parties to the UNFCCC Dear Parties, It is pretty hard to fight anything with one arm tied behind your back. How do you […]
Incorporating Human Rights in Climate Action Should be a Piece of (Birthday) Cake
10 Dec 2018
Seventy years ago the world came together following the devastation of the second world war, one of the worst human rights atrocities of our time, and adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) to ensure that egregious human rights violations would never be repeated on such a massive scale! Today we are facing a […]