The senior climate negotiator for the European Union made a final attempt to prevent failure in the waning minutes of the annual climate summit on Friday morning by tying disaster financing to emissions reductions.
The U.N. Climate Change Conference, also known as COP27, begins what’s supposed to be its last day with major uncertainties and there are preparations for negotiations to drag on long past their scheduled 6 p.m. conclusion.
Meanwhile, diplomats got their first glimpse of an overarching “cover decision” Friday when the meeting’s Egyptian hosts published a document that reiterated the need for rapid emissions cuts to meet the world’s warming targets but showed little progress on the meeting’s most contentious issue: funding for developing countries harmed by a warming world.
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Another draft proposal circulated late Thursday laid out three possible resolutions to the impasse. Nations could agree to establish a dedicated fund this year, continue negotiations with an eye toward setting up the fund at next year’s COP or commit only to “new and enhanced funding arrangements” without settling on a designated fund.
Frans Timmermans, the lead negotiator for the European Union, said its plan, offered late Thursday night, is as far as the bloc can go in negotiating.
It would concede to developing nations that have been unequivocal in their demands for a designated fund to compensate them for the destruction caused by climate change, and in return require all countries to start reducing their planet-warming emissions by 2025.
The E.U. compromise would put pressure on every major negotiating power at the annual summit. China and India would have to take new steps to curb escalating emissions that they have been reluctant to do. Hard-hit nations would get a fund but face potentially years more of negotiating on money to fill it.
Story was adapted from the Washington Post.
