The ecbi Regional Training Workshop for Anglophone Africa, on 2 & 3 May 2019 at the Harmony Hotel in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, was organised in partnership with regional partner ENDA Energie. It was attended by 29 participants from the region, nominated by UNFCCC National Focal Points.
European Capacity Building Initiative
ecbi Publications
ecbi's Publications and Policy Analysis Unit (PPAU) generates information and advice for developing country negotiators that is relevant to the climate negotiations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Developing countries often lack the economic and institutional capacity for policy analysis. If negotiators are unable to engage proactively by submitting proposals, responding to proposals from other States, and assessing the impact of global climate policy decisions on their individual States, progress in the negotiations can be hampered by the lack of alternatives and uncertainity. The differences in analytic capacity between developing countries and the industrialised world are often profound – developing countries lack support from organisations like the OECD, for instance, which has an immense apparatus producing thorough and focused reports, including direct advice on future policy responses to each of member country.
ecbi publications aim to be relevant to ongoing negotiations under the UNFCCC, timely, and trustworthy. PPAU works with negotiators from developing countries, sometimes through Editorial Committees, to identify UNFCCC issues where further analysis and policy advice is needed. Global experts are then teamed up with negotiators from devleoping countries to produce Policy Briefs and Discussion Notes. This partnership between experts and negotiators helps to ensure that the process of producing a Brief addresses the specific concerns of developing country negotiators; builds the capacity of developing country co-authors in policy analysis; and also builds ownership of the analysis.
For new negotiators, and for use in ecbi Regional and Pre-COP Training Workshops, PPAU produces Background Papers and a series of Pocket Guides. These generally provide a more basic analysis of issues for newcomers to the process, along with the background and history of the issue in the negotiations.
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The 2019 ecbi Regional Training and Support Workshop for Francophone Africa took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 29 April to 1 May. The workshop was attended by 32 participants from the region. This report highlights the key areas of discussion, which, in addition to an introduction to the history of the global climate negotiations, included thematic sessions on adaptation, Article 6, transparency, the global stocktake, and climate diplomacy in the year ahead. Mock negotiations and a session on formulating a group position gave participants a taste of the real negotiations.
Publication Date:
June, 2019
A key strength of the ecbi has been the identification of potential roadblocks in the global climate negotiations, and efforts (often successful) to engage negotiators from across the spectrum to identify innovative ways to break the impasse. In 2018-2019, as the global negotiations on the Paris rulebook approached the endgame, we identified two such critical areas: common timeframes and Article 6 market mechanisms. These two issues, along with the continuing concerns regarding the adequacy and predictability of climate finance, formed the focus of our work during this year.
Publication Date:
May, 2019
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) provides the foundation for the international response to climate change. This Pocket Guide seeks to summarise and explain the main provisions of the UNFCCC’s 26 Articles. It aims to look both forwards and back, outlining the origins of key clauses and drawing out those elements of current significance. This should allow for a better understanding of the existing rules, institutions, and procedures under the current climate change regime.
Publication Date:
April, 2019
This Pocket Guide provides a brief history of the global community’s response to adaptation under the UNFCCC since 1992. Although the response has gathered pace in recent years, it has yet to gather sufficient momentum. In the 2015 Paris Agreement, attempts were made to correct the balance of attention between adaptation and mitigation. However, many of the concepts and metrics around adaptation still lack clear definition, and many challenges remain, in streamlining the global response to adaptation and providing vulnerable countries and communities the support they need to deal with one of the biggest challenges facing humankind today.
Publication Date:
April, 2019
This Independant Evaluation of Phase IV of ecbi finds that the ecbi is currently meeting and often surpassing its agreed outcomes, and is also producing unplanned benefits, including networking for participants, informal support to unblock negotiations challenges, and sharing of information with participants’ colleagues. The ecbi also meets a unique need in the negotiations process.
Publication Date:
January, 2019
The 24th Conference of Parties (COP24) to the UNFCCC was an important milestone for the international climate change regime, expected to further animate the Paris Agreement by adopting the detailed rules for its implementation. Did the compromises that had to be made to accommodate the varied interests of 197 countries in Katowice add up to an adequate response to climate change? A succinct summary of key outcomes, with comments and quotes from the ecbi network of negotiators.
Publication Date:
January, 2019
The Dynamic Contribution Cycle, designed during the 2014 ecbi Oxford Seminar to maximise space for future ambition in the Paris Agreement, revisited in light of recent developments and submissions to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Publication Date:
November, 2018
The IPCC’s special report on Global Warming of 1.5°C recently highlighted the importance of early action against climate change. In this context, pre-2020 ambition becomes ever more critical. As the 2020 deadline approaches, this policy brief considers whether pre-2020 pledges on mitigation and climate finance have been met. It also provides an overview of the history of the pre-2020 negotiations; plans for upcoming sessions; key issues under discussion; and a set of key questions and recommendations for climate negotiators.
Publication Date:
October, 2018
The 2015 Paris Agreement was negotiated piece by piece, rather than as a whole document. As a result, although several pieces of the Agreement are closely related and even overlap, not all the linkages between them are logical or, at least as yet, coherent. Identifying and addressing the links between these different complex elements is essential for the overall coherence and effectiveness of the Paris outcome. This paper identifies links and gaps between the major elements of the Agreement.
Publication Date:
October, 2018
