Negotiators say they’ve struck a possible breakthrough deal on the thorniest issue of United Nations climate talks, the creation of a fund for compensating poor nations which are victims of utmost weather worsened by wealthy nations’ carbon pollution.
“There may be an agreement on loss and damage,” which is what negotiators call the concept, Maldives Environment Minister Aminath Shauna told The Associated Press Saturday. It still must be approved unanimously in a vote later today. “Which means for countries like ours we could have the mosaic of solutions that we now have been advocating for.”
“We proposed a text and this actually just has just been accepted, so we now have a fund,” Norway Climate and Environment minister Espen Barth Eide told the AP.
Recent Zealand Climate Minister James Shaw said each the poor countries that may get the cash and the wealthy ones that may give it are on board with the proposed deal.
If approved, it’s an enormous win for poorer nations which have been calling for compensation — sometimes even called reparations — for a long time because they are sometimes the victims of climate disasters despite having contributed little to the pollution that heats up the globe. It’s a mirrored image of what could be done when they continue to be unified, said Alex Scott, a climate diplomacy expert on the think tank E3G.
“I believe this is large to have governments coming together to really work out no less than step one of no less than the way to take care of the problem of loss and damage,” Scott said. But like all climate financials, it’s one thing to create a fund, it’s one other to get money flowing out and in, she said. The developed world still has not kept its 2009 pledge to spend $100 billion a yr in other climate aid — designed to assist poor nations develop green energy and adapt to future warming.
“The draft decision on loss and damage finance offers hope to the vulnerable those who they’ll get help to get better from climate disasters and rebuild their lives,” said Harjeet Singh, head of world political strategy at Climate Motion Network International.
The Chinese lead negotiator wouldn’t comment on a possible deal. The U.S. negotiations office, where special envoy John Kerry is sick with Covid-19, declined to comment. China and the U.S. are the 2 biggest carbon polluters. European negotiators were huddling over proposals.
Alok Sharma, the British official who chaired last yr’s climate talks in Glasgow, said details of the agreement still needed to be worked out.
“We’re continuing to debate,” he said, as he rushed with aides to a gathering on the Egyptian presidency office.
The Egyptian presidency, which had been under criticism by all sides, proposed a latest loss and damage agreement Saturday afternoon and inside a few hours an agreement was struck but Norway’s Eide said it was not a lot the Egyptians but countries working together.
In accordance with the draft of the proposal from Egypt developed countries can be “urged” to contribute to the fund, which might also draw on other private and public sources of cash equivalent to international financial institutions.
“We managed to make progress on a very important end result,” said Wael Aboulmagd, who heads the Egyptian delegation.
Nonetheless, the Egyptian proposal doesn’t suggest that major emerging economies equivalent to China must contribute to the fund, which was a key ask of the European Union and the US.
The Egyptian proposal also doesn’t tie the creation of the brand new fund to any increase in efforts to chop emissions, or restrict the recipients of funding to those countries which are most vulnerable, which had been an earlier proposal from the Europeans.
A second overarching document from the climate talks leadership that was also published by the Egyptian presidency Saturday ignores India’s call to phase down oil and natural gas, along with last yr’s agreement to wean the world from “unabated” coal.
The package of drafts released by the Egyptian presidency, on efforts to step up emissions cuts and the overarching decision of this yr’s talks, barely construct on what was agreed in Glasgow last yr.
The Egyptian package leaves in place a reference to the Paris accords less ambitious goal of limiting global warming to “well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit)” which scientists say is much too dangerous.
It also doesn’t mean any latest short-term targets for either developing or developed countries, which experts say are needed to realize the more ambitious 1.5C (2.7F) goal that may prevent a few of the more extreme effects of climate change.
Earlier on Saturday government delegations and the COP27 meeting’s Egyptian hosts pointed fingers at one another.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said responsibility for the fate of the talks “now lies within the hands of the Egyptian COP presidency.”
Hours later a deal was struck.
Before striking a deal, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, speaking because the summit’s chair, deflected blame.
“The problem now rests with the desire of the parties,” Shoukry said at a press conference. “It’s the parties who must rise to the occasion and take upon themselves the responsibility of finding the areas of convergence and moving forward.”
He added that “all must show the needed flexibility” in reaching a consensus, and that Egypt was merely “facilitating this process.”
Throughout the climate summit, the American, Chinese, Indian and Saudi Arabian delegations have kept a low public profile, while European, African, Pakistan and small island nations have been more vocal.
Most of the greater than 40,000 attendees have left town, and employees began packing up the vast pavilions within the sprawling conference zone.
U.N. climate meetings have evolved through the years to resemble trade fairs, with many countries and industry groups organising booths and displays for meetings and panel discussions.
At many stands, chairs were stacked neatly ready for removal, and monitors had been taken away, leaving cables dangling from partitions. Pamphlets and booklets were strewn across tables and floors. Snack bars, which the Egyptian organizers said would remain open through the weekend, were emptied out.
On the youth pavilion, a gathering spot for young activists, a pile of handwritten postcards from children to negotiators was left on a table, in what was perhaps an apt metaphor for the state of play because the talks bogged down.
“Dear COP27 negotiators,” read one card. “Keep fighting for a very good planet.”
An occasional gust of wind from the open doors nearby blew a few of the cards onto the ground.