Three days before the scheduled end of COP27, rich and poor countries put their pawns on Tuesday, exposing the fractures in particular on the creation of a fund demanded by vulnerable countries to compensate for the “losses and damages” already suffered in the face of the impacts of warming.
“Progress has been made, but there is certainly still more to be done if we want to reach a solid conclusion that will be a driver for ambitious and inclusive climate action”, summarized Monday evening Sameh Choukri, the president of this 27e UN climate conference.
The first draft of the final declaration published overnight from Monday to Tuesday is only a bulleted list, with however the reaffirmation in a few words of certain disputed principles, such as “the urgency of acting so that the objective of +1.5°C remains within the realm of possibility”.
The 2015 Paris Agreement aims to limit warming to well below 2°C compared to the pre-industrial era, if possible 1.5°C. While each tenth of a degree leads to an increase in climate disasters, the signatories of the agreement committed themselves last year at COP26 to “keep alive” the most ambitious objective.
But observers say Saudi Arabia and China have made clear their reluctance, already expressed in the past, to see this reference again in the final text, as the world heads towards a catastrophic warming of 2.8 °. vs.
Another crucial point at the heart of the negotiations: the demand of developing countries for the creation of a dedicated mechanism to finance the “losses and damages” already suffered due to the impacts of global warming.
Taking turns at the podium throughout the day, developing countries also castigated the lack of ambition of developed countries.
Lives “sacrificed”
“The lack of leadership and ambition in terms of mitigating greenhouse gas emissions is worrying,” Senegalese Minister of the Environment Alioune Ndoye said on behalf of the group of least developed countries. denouncing three decades “marked with disappointment”.
“At how many COPs have we called for urgent climate action? How many more will be needed? How many lives will we have to sacrifice? added Belize’s Climate Change Minister Orlando Habet, calling for action from the G20 and “other big polluters”.
Many participants at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh are also waiting to see how the G20 leaders meeting in Bali on Tuesday and Wednesday will take into account the climate crisis and their ambition to act, hoping for good news that would give a blow boost to the negotiations in Egypt.
The EU, for its part, is committed to stepping up its commitments. “Don’t let anyone here or anywhere else tell you that the EU is backtracking. Don’t let them tell you that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is killing the European Green Deal and that we are in a gas rush,” said European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans .
He thus announced that, thanks to the adoption of several pieces of legislation in recent weeks, “the EU is ready to update its commitments”, i.e. to reduce net emissions by at least 57% by 2030 compared to 1990, compared to at least 55% currently.
Much like Turkey’s announcement to raise its ambitions, the EU’s rhetoric was met with cold reception by climate activists. “The climate emergency we find ourselves in does not deserve crumbs from the EU,” criticized Chiara Martinelli of Climate Action Network Europe.