Cop27 to be extended as consensus elusive

Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, Nov 18 (EFE).- The United Nations Cop27 climate summit is to be extended for another 48 hours of debate during the weekend, a decision announced by the organization’s committee due to the lack of progress in reaching agreements on fundamental issues such as loss and damage, financing, and adaptation.

An early draft of what is to be the final decision of the summit was published by the conference’s presidency on Thursday after two weeks of meetings and negotiations.

The document introduces a few new features from the previous Glasgow agreement.

In the section dedicated to energy, the conference recognizes “being concerned with the impacts of the current energy crisis,” arising from the war in Ukraine, and its effects on the delivery of pledges and commitments related to energy transition and energy diversification, stressing the importance of avoiding backtracking on previous commitments.

It also urges an increase in “the share of renewable energy in the energy mix at all levels as part of diversifying energy mixes and systems, and encourages the continued efforts to accelerate measures towards the phase down of unabated coal power and phase out and rationalize inefficient fossil fuel subsidies.”

The text avoids mentioning the requests of environmental organizations and countries such as India to reduce the production of fossil fuels.

In another paragraph, it reiterates that limiting global warming to 1.5°C requires “immediate, deep, rapid and sustained reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions by Parties across all sectors.”

The text does not yet include specific methods on how to finance compensation to vulnerable countries for losses and damages suffered in their territory due to natural disasters resulting from climate change.

In the 20-page draft, the words “compensation” and “liability” are not mentioned, even though they were the main concerns of this year’s summit.

On this subject, European Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans presented on Friday at the summit a “final offer” to establish a specific fund for financing loss and damage, which comes with two conditions: that it is targeted at the “most vulnerable” countries and that it has a “broad donor base.”

This donor base will need to be “under the Paris Agreement and take account of the economic situations of countries in 2022, not 1992,” Timmermans told reporters in a clear suggestion that nations like China should no longer qualify as developing.

The European representative emphasized that the creation of the fund must be accompanied by financial measures to deal with the magnitude of the losses and damages, which would be made along with both new and existing institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund and other development banks.

After Timmermans’ announcement in the plenary, several countries intervened, both European and other more climate vulnerable ones, such as Barbados, to support this initiative.

The United States, one of the countries that have been blocking the creation of a fund for losses and damages, has not responded to the proposal yet.

Saudi Arabia confronted the initiative and assured that it cannot go further from what was written in the Paris Agreement.

amr-atm-ijm-mmt/aef/jt