Postcards from COP 27 part 4

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Below excerpt from emails by Glen Klatovsky CEO of Climate Action Network Australia at COP27

“November 11th and 12th:President Biden also comes this afternoon. We expect the whole area to be shut down electronically. The US announcement put forward by John Kerry a few days ago has been roundly criticised by the NGO world. It will be interesting to see what comes from the Presidential visit.

Human rights

On Friday, we had the privilege to have Sana Seif, sister of Alaa Abdel Fattah, speak with us at the CAN PCG meeting. The status of her brother continues to loom over all of the proceedings here. The White House statement today is covered here.

On decarbonisation day, we called out the greenwash

There can be no ‘decarbonisation’ without phasing out the world’s biggest cause of carbon pollution: the fossil fuel industry.

• The world’s chief climate arsonists cannot be trusted to put out the fire.

• The oil and gas industry is a leading cause of the climate crisis and has spent the last three decades doing its best to block and stall solutions to it.

• Oil and gas companies ‘net zero by 2050’ pledges distract from what these companies are doing to pollute communities and prolong their climate-wrecking business models. As UN Secretary-General António Guterres said this week: “Using bogus ‘net-zero’ pledges to cover up massive fossil fuel expansion is reprehensible. […] The sham must end.”

• If oil and gas companies were sincere about decarbonisation, they would be stopping new exploration and extraction projects immediately and setting a course to decline their fossil fuel production and sales by 2030 rapidly.

• Decarbonization depends on keeping big polluters out of policymaking. These companies need to be held accountable and made to pay reparations to the communities they have polluted, not given a global platform to greenwash their image.

Fossil Fuels tax

Island states continue to call for a tax on fossil fuel companies to help support a Loss and Damage Fund.

Loss and Damage

There are increasing fears that there will be no outcome on Loss & Damage at this COP, as identified by Minister Bowen. Our position has changed little – wealthy nations must:

• must acknowledge there is no funding arrangement to provide a fit-for-purpose response to address L&D

• agree in the next 5 days to establish a new fit-for-purpose arrangement under the UNFCCC Financial Mechanism

• agree on a pathway through which to design and operationalise it.

Nov13th

There are two key updates from me today as we move to the pointier end of negotiations.

The first is the Glasgow Statement on public international investment in fossil fuel projects.

The commitment does not cover domestic financing.

Signing the statement would be a concrete sign that Australia is willing to take the leadership role that will be expected of a country seeking to host COP31 in 2026. Taking this step will also be welcomed by Pacific island countries, who are looking to their development and security partners to take consistent and concrete actions to address the Pacific’s single greatest threat to human security and national sovereignty – climate change.

There is still a little confusion about the status of the cover decision, however, we have worked on a list of priorities for the Australian government. The list is here:

Cover decision – KEY ELEMENTS

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Loss & Damage

• Decides to establish a Loss and Damage Finance Facility as an operating entity under the Financial Mechanism of the UNFCCC.

• Agree on a process through which to operationalise the facility by 2024 at the latest fully.

• Decide to establish the advisory board of the Santiago Network.

• Agreement at COP27 that addressing loss and damage creates action needs beyond mitigation and adaptation and therefore requires the provision of new and additional sources of funding alongside and in addition to mitigation and adaptation.

Adaptation

• Roadmap and timebound delivery tracking of doubling adaptation finance by 2025 and aim to reach 50% adaptation in climate finance.

• A clear work plan on fully operationalising the GGA by COP28  cognisant of science, rights and local leadership.

• A permanent agenda item on GGA furthering transformative adaptation.

Mitigation

• Enhance the ambition and implementation of Parties’ efforts to reduce emissions in global aggregate by at least 43% reductions by 2030 over 2019 levels to be in line with limiting global warming to 1.5°.

• NDC enhancement, progression beyond previous NDCs, and show the highest possible ambition.

• The MWP must be connected to the High Level Ministerials and strongly reflect the principles of CBDR-RC in a just sectoral approach, following up and building on Glasgow commitments.

Finance

• Decide to establish an agenda item on Aligning Financial Flows under Article 2.1c of the Paris Agreement starting from  SBI58 and COP28 to ensure financial flows progressively contribute and not work against Article 2 of the Paris Agreement, taking into consideration also principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and national circumstances, invites Parties to submit their views in submissions on the content and approach to the agenda item by 31 March 2023.

• Invites efforts toward financial system transformation to shift the trillions for low-carbon climate-resilient development pathways in developing countries – including through adequate, predictable, new, and additional needs-based public finance that is not debt-inducing, reform of the international financial architecture and its institutions, debt sustainability reforms and debt cancellation and other debt-relief, and innovative sources such a taxing windfall profits of polluters.

• Expresses deep regret that the $US100bn remains undelivered and welcomes interest from [some] developed country parties to deliver $US100 billion on annual average (i.e. $US600 billion total) over the period 2020-2025 [with 50% of that going to adaptation].

Fossil fuels

• Recognises that deep decarbonisation requires a sharp reduction in the production and consumption of fossil fuels.

• Calls for 100% renewable power generation and energy efficiency measures.

• Calls Parties to accelerate efforts towards the phasedown of fossil fuel power and phase-out of fossil fuel subsidies, acknowledging the need for an equitable phase-out of oil and gas extraction by 2050 globally.

Nature and Human Rights

• Calls for adopting an ambitious and transformative Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework at COP15.

• Urges Parties to identify and ensure the delivery of the financial support specifically required to guarantee the implementation of the ecosystems provisions of the Convention and Article 5 of the Paris Agreement, and maximise synergies with the finance provisions and decisions of the other Rio Conventions.

• Recalling the UN General Assembly resolution 76/300 and Human Rights Council resolution 48/13 recognising the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment,  the promotion of which requires the full implementation of the multilateral environmental agreements under the principles of international environmental law.

Global Stocktake (GST)

• Recalling the role of GST according to Article 14 of the Paris Agreement.

• Equity enhancement of NDCs and international cooperation.

Gender

• Welcomes the progress achieved on the Gender Action Plan and calls on all countries to accelerate the integration of gender considerations into all climate planning and action.”