The COP27 climate talks in Egypt, which had appeared close to collapse on Saturday morning, edged toward a last-minute deal after progress on a landmark agreement to pay poorer countries for harm caused by global warming.
The proposal would establish a new fund next year for the cost of climate disasters. As talks continued into the evening, negotiators were focused on language that would meet European demands for tougher action on mitigating climate change. But a group of countries, including Saudi Arabia, Brazil and China, were pushing back on strengthening the text, delegates said.
Hundreds of officials are closeted in closed-door negotiations trying to find a text that will satisfy almost 200 nations before ministers start heading home after two weeks of talks. A final version will then be taken to an open plenary session for a final sign off.
“I’m cautiously optimistic at this point,” said Norwegian Energy Minister Espen Barth Eide.
The day had started with a threat from EU climate chief Frans Timmermans to walk out of the negotiations in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, risking the prospect of the first annual COP meeting without a deal for more than a decade. He has been a prime mover at the summit, trying to unlock progress through a grand bargain exchanging the promise of loss and damage cash for a harder line on emissions.
“The EU is united in our ambition to move forward and build on what we agreed in Glasgow,” Timmermans said, flanked by a group of European energy ministers. “Our message to partners is clear: We cannot accept that 1.5C dies here and today.”
The breakthrough on loss and damage came with the addition of a line that ensures funds will go only to the most vulnerable countries, like small island states and least developed nations. The text also includes a reference that could include other countries — like China — contributing to solve the problem.
The European demand for global emissions to peak by 2025 and a pledge to phase down all fossil fuels weren’t in the latest version of text, but work was ongoing to find language that could assuage european concerns.
The U.K., a key ally of the EU on climate, said the latest text threatened to take climate action backward from Glasgow, an indication that movement would have to be made on mitigation before Europe could sign the deal.
“The text right now does not go beyond Glasgow and it doesn’t even take us to Glasgow,” said Alok Sharma, the U.K.’s lead negotiator, who was president of last year’s COP in the Scottish city.
Still, the deal on loss damage pleased African delegations, which had set securing promises on compensation before the summit started.
“It is a victory, not only for Africa, but for developing nations,” said Ephraim Mwepya Shitima, the chairman of the African Group of Negotiators. “We will be going back smiling.”
South Africa’s environment minister, Barbara Creecy, said the payments could become significant in time.
“Loss and damage can potentially take an enormous amount of funding,” Creecy said in an interview. “The purpose of allowing another year so that further sources of funding and financing can be identified.”
Saturday also brought the resumption of climate cooperation between China and the U.S., a further sign that the meeting between presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden at the Group of 20 summit in Bali thawed relations between the world’s two largest emitters. China’s chief negotiator Xie Zhenhua made the announcement in a press briefing. His U.S. counterpart John Kerry is isolating because of a COVID infection.
“Today, we have agreed that after this COP we will continue our formal consultation,” Xie said.
Talks on climate were suspended after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan earlier this year.
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(With assistance from Salma El Wardany, Mirette Magdy, Antony Sguazzin and Laura Millan Lombraña.)
