Update: The summit finally agreed a loss and damage package as part of the Sharm el-Sheikh COP27 statement. Around 200 nations applauded when the late deal, rubber stamped at a meeting starting at 4am Egypt time, concluded. The meeting's Egyptian presidency tweeted: 'On African soil, the voice of the acutely affected communities were finally heard.'
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A big sticking point in the final hours of the global climate summit remains China's insistence it is still a 'developing' economy by old UN definitions and should not pay into a fund for 'developing' countries' loss and damage.
The despondent mood of the COP27 global climate negotiations in Egypt eased a little early Sunday NZT as they reconvened for another plenary session.
Hope was kindled by the latest draft agreement, released Saturday afternoon. It offered stronger language on the paramount issue of finance for developing countries hit by climate losses and damage. That helped build support from a number of them, and from some climate NGOs campaigning for them.
Seeking to galvanise negotiators after days of deadlocked talks, UN Secretary General António Guterres had tweeted earlier in his trenchant style: “Fossil fuel addiction is hijacking humanity. Renewables are the only exit ramp from the climate hell highway.”
Despite the glaring omissions in the latest draft agreement, particularly to 1.5C as humanity’s climate goal however unlikely reaching it might be, there were some encouraging new elements. These included strong references to scaling up renewable energy; and the first reference in a COP agreement to the need for social dialogue and for setting up a work stream and just transitions.
However, there were still many unresolved issues that promised to keep negotiations going through a second night.
They had their work cut out for them, given the first draft of COP27’s final agreement “has been received quite poorly by pretty much everybody,” New Zealand’s Climate Minister James Shaw told the Associated Press. It was “entirely unsatisfactory,” he added. In particular, it “abandons really any hope of achieving 1.5C.”
Negotiations suffered a setback on Friday when US climate envoy John Kerry tested Covid positive. His symptoms were mild and he was still working the phones from his hotel isolation, the US delegation said.
But that’s second best compared with his in-person power at COP26 in Glasgow. Seeking to help secure a last-minute agreement, he shuttled between groups of nations on the negotiating floor making promises, threats and reassurances.
The EU’s proposals for a loss and damage fund, released Thursday night as an attempt to bring countries together, stimulated debate and ambition in subsequent negotiations. These resulted in in the improved second draft.
Three key elements of its skeletal structure are:
- It would only proceed if there was a broad spectrum of developed countries contributing to it, including wealthy petro-states and newly industrialised countries, particularly China. But that element is fiercely resisted by them.
- It would be operational within two years.
- There could be a separate commission to examine whether multilateral financial agencies such as the World Bank and the IMF would collaborate with it. If so, that would help unlock large sums of private sector and philanthropic capital for climate-hit developing countries.
The latest draft of the final agreement picked up on that point, with language that suggested significant changes in the architecture of global finance was needed to tackle the climate crisis.
However, there was still strong distrust among nations. Crucially, some developing countries said rich nations were negotiating in bad faith. Two examples cited are their continuing investment in new fossil fuel projects, particularly in gas supplies from Africa; and their attempt to divide developing countries by trying to push China into providing funds.
On Saturday, China’s chief climate negotiator Xie Zhenhua reiterated the Chinese position that it was still a developing country, and as such had no obligation to provide financial assistance to poor nations.
He said China voluntarily aided countries in Latin America, Africa and elsewhere, including help with early warning systems of extreme weather, access to renewable energy technology, and “capacity building” for governments.
Whether COP27 can reach agreement, however flawed, is still uncertain.
Other COPs have run well over their scheduled end in order to secure a final agreement, however weak and vague, only one so far ended inconclusively. That was COP6 in The Hague in November 2000. It reconvened in Bonn the following July COP6-2 to reach agreement, according to Arthur Wyns, a policy analyst at Australia’s Climate and Health Alliance.
