CLIMATE NEGOTIATIONS BONN JUNE 2013 NGO NEWSLETTER

6 Ju n e

Sandwich Issue

ECO has been published by NonGovernmental Environmental Groups at major international conferences since the Stockholm Environment Conference in 1972. ECO is produced cooperatively by the Climate Action Network at the UNFCCC meetings in Bonn, June 2013. ECO email: [email protected] ECO website: http://eco.climatenetwork.org Editorial/Production: Kyle Gracey ECO is printed on 100% recycled paper

Fresh Breeze of Science Bring It On!

The shiny walls of the Maritim have a history of isolating negoti ators from the troubles of the real world. While record floods have been devastating parts of Ger many, Austria, Switzerland and the Czech Republic, forcing thou sands to leave their homes, busi ness as usual has continued undisturbed in this calm and cosy UNFCCC bubble. But yesterday ECO caught the scent of a fresh breeze of science and reality! It was when the 2013 2015 science and adequacy re view kickstarted with a reality check workshop. While scientists were at the podium, civil society was on the microphone and on the wall through Twitter. Thumbs up for the Secretariat and the Chair! Heres the good news: Accord ing to the Hadley Centre, meeting a 1.5 degree C limit is still pos sible. Sure, there is a low probab ility, OR it could be a rebound after a temperature overshoot of at least several decades. But despite these caveats, its still possible. The bad news is that reality is closer to worstcase scenario put forward by the IPCC in 1990, which is why this adequacy re view is crucial.

It is one thing to neither have a domestic climate policy nor to accept a legally binding target at the international level. It is certainly worse to prevent 191 other countries from discussing and advancing their own implementation plans for climate solutions.
ECO recognizes there is a risk Parties will end up reviewing everything from the first UNFCCC document they ever read to the adequacy of the Maritim sand wiches (not adequate). This will only result in a bloated reiteration of what we already know, without clear conclusions, recommenda tions and decisions. ECO expects the review to, firstly, assess the scale and nature of irreversible damage, human misery, ecosystem losses and risks related to tipping points that could be avoided if warming were limited to 1.5 degrees in stead of 2. The structure of the review including its process and the inputs it receives must serve this key question, with special fo cus on the most vulnerable.

Russia:

Today, Parties will put forward ideas for advancing adaptation in the 2015 deal under the ADP.

ADP Can Finally Fix Finance Failures in Adaptation

As dangerous climate change looms closer and closer, and with little sign of increased mitig ation ambition, millions of the poorest people in the world will face impacts that threaten their lives and livelihoods. Response to climate change through a new agreement must see adaptation as an essential component. The roundtable will have inputs from the technical bodies, Ad aptation Committee and LEG in to the ADP to avoid duplication of efforts and to learn from ongo ing work. This is important, so as to understand where the current architecture can be improved. However, it is even more import ant to identify major gaps that need to be addressed. Here, ECO sees an important role in the ADP process in correcting some of the shortcomings of past agreements. The most important gaps are related to finance. Hardly any donor country has achieved the balance between adaptation and mitigation in the fast start fin ance period that was agreed in Copenhagen and Cancun. Ad

aptation finance lags far behind mitigation finance. Both are cru cial and both need to expand rapidly. Secondly, ECO also highlights the problem that currently only donors determine what kind of projects might be counted as fast start finance, without a voice for the recipient countries in de termining whether the reported finance is really climate finance. ECO has serious doubts about some projects that have been reported as adaptation finance.

Secondly, yesterday Parties were warned about the funda mental importance of early peak ing of global emissions if we want to achieve any tolerable temperature limit. This core con sideration should guide the ad equacy review. Thirdly, the review should help put us on track in preventing cli mate chaos. It is not just another technical exercise. This is our op continued on page 2

Finally, climate finance is un dermining financing for poverty reduction and addressing the needs of the poorest. Almost all donor countries count adaptation finance as Official Development Aid (ODA). We observe many countries report rising climate finance figures, while total ODA is decreasing (often far below the committed 0.7%). If it had been agreed that adaptation fin ance counted as ODA and that it would target the most vulnerable and poorest communities, this would be less of a con cern. continued on 2

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CLIMATE NEGOTIATIONS BONN JUNE 2013 NGO NEWSLETTER

portunity to learn from past mistakes in order to set meaningful targets and deliver on commit ments. The review must focus, from the begin ning, on drawing actionable conclusions from the plethora of assessments that already exist. The longterm goal, targets and commitments in the 2015 agreement must be based on the re view findings. But the review must also guide en hanced shortterm action (think ADP Workstream 2), with decisions to be taken in 2013 and 2014. The iterative nature of the review and the work plans of both the Joint Contact Group and Expert Dialogue should allow for this.

Science continued

Location: Latin America Duration: one year Deadline: until suitable candidate is found

Now Hiring: COP20 President

Finally, ECO was glad to observe that both presenters and Parties recognised that assess ing the adequacy of a temperature goal or coun tries action is not only a scientific exercise. Eventually, guided by science, value judgements will have to be made. So close involvement of civil society should be obvious. In reviewing how governments are doing in meeting their goals, nongovernmental organisations are essential to transparency and accountability. In making a value judgement of adequacy, involving civil soci ety, and in particular the voices of those most im pacted, is fundamental. ECO is looking forward to the first meeting of the Joint Contact Group, scheduled for Friday morning.

But this commitment was deleted in the Copenhagen and Cancun negoti ations, over the objections of civil soci ety. Prioritising the needs and risks of the most vulnerable people is essential. This means scaling up new and addi tional adaptation finance for post 2020, based on past and future re sponsibilities for causing the problem, and allocating at least 50% of public climate finance to adaptation.

Fix continued

The Climate Change International Policy Process is looking for an Active, Positive and Constructive COP Presidency with ambition as high as the Andes mountains, who will facilitate transparent work amongst Parties in 2014 to achieve crucial milestones for a global Fair Ambitious and Bind ing deal in 2015. The successful candidate will be part of an multicultural environment and will conduct several meetings throughout the year. The candidate will build consensus among Parties, promoting camaraderie and good will. Commitment to engage actively with Civil Society Organisa tions is a must. A proven record of greenhouse gas pollution reductions at home and contributing to a strong global climate regime is a definite plus. Specific Skills and Characteristics: Constructive attitude Impartial Able to moderate difficult discussions Problem solver Good anger management Ability to overcome obstructions Leads by example Compensation: The adoration of millions, possibly billions, for contributing to a deal in 2015 to prevent climate change catastrophe. Free subscrip tion to ECO for life. To apply: send selfnomination to your Corresponding Regional Group ASAP

ECO would like to congratulate Sweden for pledging to the Adaptation Fund (AF) for the 4th time, in a (as yet) lonely attempt to save it (and small island states) from going under. Pledging to the Adaptation Fund has never been this urgent as CER reven ues have never been this low, drop ping from 100 million USD in 2010 to an estimated 7 million in 2013. ECO has done the maths: its barely enough to fund ONE project under the Adapta tion Fund. Without new pledges, the Adaptation Fund will have to stop fin ancing projects next year at the latest. ECO wonders, do Parties realize what this means for vulnerable countries facing rising seas and extreme events?

Save the Adaptation Fund!

doubts the value of the AF, it is ranked as the most transparent climate fund and is signat ory to the International Aid Transparency Initi ative. It prioritises benefits for the most

vulnerable communities and promotes institu tional progress through direct access. In case we have not made it clear in every single ECO article, developing countries need assurance that their adaptation needs will be met and the negotiations need to see some trust building if we really want that deal in 2015.

The Adaptation Fund board sent a desper ate call for contributions of an additional 100 million USD by the end of 2013, but only about 45 million has been received to date. And that was before the CER price fell this low. ECO believes that 150 million is the minimum ne cessary by Warsaw to maintain essential Adapt ation Fund progress. All eyes on you, USA, Japan, Norway, Germany, France and others. Chart notes: all figures are actual contrib uted resources. Australia pledged A$10 mil lion in 2010 but has not yet delivered. Swedens recent pledge from two weeks ago has already been counted, since its fulfilment seems to be only a matter of time based on its good track record of fulfilling pledges.

In case the message is not yet clear, ECO would like to reiterate: the one and only Ad aptation Fund is drying up at the same time as fast start finance winds down, and needs an urgent round of pledges. In case anyone

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