COP27 in Egypt | The United States promises to remain engaged, the countries of the South grow impatient

(Sharm el-Sheikh) US President Joe Biden will remain “committed” to the fight against climate change regardless of the outcome of the US elections, his envoy promised on Tuesday at COP27, where the countries of the South are calling for funding that could become astronomical.

“The climate crisis isn’t just threatening our infrastructure, our economies or our security – it’s threatening every aspect of our daily lives,” warned US climate envoy John Kerry on the third day of the major conference. the UN on the climate, which is held in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt.

“President Biden is more determined than ever to continue what we are doing”, regardless of the election result, and recognizes his country’s “special responsibility” towards developing nations, he said.

The American president is not present in Egypt at the same time as the other leaders, awaiting this Tuesday the result of midterm elections crucial for his political future. However, he will come to Sharm el-Sheikh on Friday, a meeting clouded by concerns about the fate of Egyptian opponent Alaa Abdel Fattah, in danger of death after seven months of hunger strike.

Leaders continued to parade on Tuesday at COP27, which officially included the issue of loss and damage suffered by countries in the South on its agenda.

” Polluter pays ”

“It’s only a step,” warned Tuesday at the podium the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne, on behalf of the Alliance of Small Island States (Aosis), threatened by the rise of waters.

“We must unequivocally establish a fund for loss and damage at this COP” and it will be “only a modest pledge as our members lose up to 2% of their GDP in one day from a single event climate,” he said.

“We must respect the polluter-pays principle, in solidarity,” said the President of Senegal and the African Union Macky Sall.

These discussions are taking place against an increasingly urgent backdrop of disasters, with historic floods in Pakistan this year, famine-threatening drought in the Horn of Africa and record heat in Europe this summer.

The UN secretary general on Monday urged leaders to “cooperate or perish”. “It’s either a climate solidarity pact or a collective suicide pact,” thundered Antonio Guterres.

This solidarity must be translated into financial commitments, in particular for poor countries, and the question of money is the most bitterly discussed on the occasion of COP27.

Southern countries will need more than $2 trillion a year by 2030 to finance their climate action, nearly half of which will come from outside investors, according to a report commissioned by the COP presidency released on Tuesday.

“Gigantic task”

“Rich countries should recognize that it is in their own vital interest, as well as a matter of justice, given the severe effects caused by their high emissions yesterday and today, to invest in climate action” in these countries,” said Nicholas Stern, a renowned economist who co-authored the report.

But if private actors are called to the rescue, they must respect rules, have also warned UN experts, warning against false promises of “carbon neutrality”: no new investments in fossil fuels, no cheap “compensation” for emissions, no deforestation.

Faced with immense needs, more and more voices are calling for a reform of the international financial system designed at the end of the Second World War, to better help countries like Pakistan, where floods submerged a third of the territory and affected some 33 million people, causing more than $30 billion in damage and economic loss.

The country must now prepare to spend the winter, with millions of people to be rehoused. “How can we be expected to undertake this mammoth task alone? asked Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif from the podium.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa also regretted multilateral aid “out of reach for the majority of the world’s population due to risk-averse lending policies with onerous costs and conditions”.

For the time being, Gaston Browne has called for the oil and gas giants, which are making stratospheric profits this year, to cash out. “It is time for these companies to pay a global carbon tax on these profits to finance the losses and damages”, he demanded.