ecbi has published its 2023 Annual Report. The Bonn Seminar , Fellows Colloquium, and Oxford Seminar took place during the report period, covering a range of issues of relevance to the intergovernmental climate negotiations, such as the Global Stocktake, climate finance particularly for loss and damage, and Paris Agreement Article 2.1.c on making financial flows consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement. ecbi also published numerous discussion notes, policy briefs, and blog posts, while the ecbi Director participated in several events throughout the year.
European Capacity Building Initiative
ecbi Reports
This report focuses on discussions and decisions related to ambition, finance, loss and damage, and the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA). It explains that, while COP27 failed to move the needle closer to the temperature goal of 1.5°C, it did result in an historic (and unexpected) decision to establish a fund and funding arrangements to respond to loss and damage for those most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Other significant outcomes the report addresses include agreement on institutional arrangements to operationalise the Santiago Network for Loss and Damage. A decision was also taken to establish a work programme on a just transition and, for the first time, a call was made to reform the multilateral development banks and international financial institutions, so they are aligned with the Paris Agreement and Article 2.1 (c) on making finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low emissions and climate-resilient development. Some progress was also made on the mitigation work programme, as well as on the two-year Glasgow-Sharm El-Sheikh work programme on the Global Goal on Adaptation, which is expected to conclude at COP28/CMA5 in Dubai. The report also looks at what needs to happen in 2023 to ensure COP28 further advances on these issues. The report was authored by experts with many years of experience in the UNFCCC negotiations, and features quotes and insights from ecbi’s network of negotiators and delegates who attended COP27.
Publication Date:
March, 2023
Returning following a hiatus due to the pandemic, ecbi convened its annual Bonn and Oxford Seminars, and Fellow Colloquium. ecbi also published many Policy Briefs, Discussion Notes and blog posts during the period covered by the report. The Government of Denmark agreed to provide funding for Phase V for 2022-2025.
Publication Date:
February, 2023
In the course of the year, the Fellowship Programme held eight virtual events; and the Training and Support Programme held three regional Training Webinars. By far the most productive arm of the ecbi last year was the Publications and Policy Analysis Unit, which produced five Policy Briefs, eight Pocket Guides, four blog posts, and seven meeting reports.
Publication Date:
April, 2021
New elements in the final reporting year for ecbi Phase IV included a mentorship programme for women, the publication of a Guide to the Paris Agreement, and a training workshop in the Caribbean. In addition to the usual Fellowship Programme and Training and Support Programme events, meetings were held on key issues that remain to be resolved under the UNFCCC, and the publications unit produced a record number of publications.
Publication Date:
June, 2020
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
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 three ecbi programmes had a particularly busy period this past year, producing nine seminars, four training programmes, eight policy briefs and notes; three pocket guides; and numerous meeting reports. Bursaries were provided to two junior negotiators, and technical support to senior negotiators from vulnerable countries.
Publication Date:
April, 2018
Last year was, by any account, an extraordinary year in the fight against climate change – not only at the international level with the Paris Agreement, but also for the ecbi.
First and foremost, support from the German International Climate Initiative (IKI) has revived our Training and Support Programme (T&SP). Managed by Achala Abeysinghe and her team at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), T&SP held its first pre-COP training workshop for junior LDC negotiators in Paris. We are very much looking forward to the future pre-COP and regional training workshops and support activities by the T&SP in Phase IV (2015-2020) of the ecbi.
We were also extremely proud about the fact that in the run-up to Paris, Achala was listed as one of the top 15 female climate champions by CNN, together with Christiana Figueres and Laurence Tubiana, and subsequently featured in a special edition on Vogue as a “climate warrior”.
Our Publications and Policy Analysis Unit, headed by Anju Sharma, has also delivered a number of important policy papers and analyses. Anju, who is also our lead analyst on in-country Enhanced Direct Access (EDA), presented a set of last year’s publications, Consolidation and devolution of national climate finance: The case of India and Engaging Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises in developing countries: Enhanced Direct Access and the GCF Private Sector Facility, at a Fellowship Programme Ad hoc Seminar consultation with senior Indian policy-makers in New Delhi, to encourage a national understanding of EDA.
In addition to this, and apart from the annual Bonn Seminar and Oxford Fellowship and Seminar, the Fellowship Programme also organised a couple of Ad hoc Seminars co-hosted by the Chair of the Adaptation Fund Board and the co-chairs of the Standing Committee on Finance to facilitate a discussion between the members of these two bodies on the role of the Adaptation Fund in the new climate regime.
Publication Date:
June, 2016
