UPDATE: Sunday, Nov 20, 2022 · 4:54:09 AM +00:00
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boatsie
Collin Rees, campaign manager at Oil Change International, said:
Cop27’s key steps toward a loss and damage fund are deeply marred by the lack of progress on fossil fuels.
Despite unprecedented discussion of equitably phasing out oil, gas, and coal, the end result was yet another Cop without formal recognition that Big Oil is driving the climate crisis and harming communities.
Climate scientists have warned that there currently is no credible path to staying below 1.5C given countries’ insufficient emissions reduction targets, with 2022 on track to set a new record for global greenhouse gas emissions. Guardian
UPDATE: Sunday, Nov 20, 2022 · 4:52:02 AM +00:00
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boatsie
The Guardian reports:
While there has been a landmark breakthrough on loss and damage, the other outcomes of Cop27 look disappointingly similar to last year’s climate summit in Scotland.
Last year, for the first time, a fossil fuel – namely coal – was mentioned for “phase down” in a UN climate agreement and several countries, and climate campaigners, had pushed for all fossil fuels, including oil and gas, to be named for elimination at Cop27.
But this did not happen, nor did any stronger language around achieving the in-peril target of limiting global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. This has led to frustration among some countries.
UPDATE: Sunday, Nov 20, 2022 · 1:04:26 AM +00:00 · boatsie
People waiting to be let into room for closing plenary. From The Guardian on Loss and Damage:
Rich countries sought to argue that rapidly growing economies such as China and oil producers such as Saudi Arabia and other petro-states should contribute to rather than receive from funds to repair climate “loss and damage”.
They also want to ensure that the countries receiving cash from the fund are the most vulnerable, rather than those with big economies that are still classed as “developing” under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, signed in 1992. www.theguardian.com/...
COP27 continues past its Friday deadline into the early Sunday hours in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, with many delegatations already heading home and officials announcing the closing plenary will begin at 4 am. (6 pm Pacific).
The climate talks appeared on the verge of collapsing Saturday morning when the EU threatened to walk out of the negotiations.
“The EU is united in our ambition to move forward and build on what we agreed in Glasgow,” EU climate chief Frans 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.”
Bloomberg reports:
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.
Loss and damage refers to funding for reparation for the devastating impacts of climate change on poor nations and communities.
“We are happy with this outcome because it’s what developed countries wanted – though not everything they came here for,” Erin Roberts, founder of the Loss and Damage Collaboration, told CNN in a statement. “Like many, I’ve also been conditioned to expect very little from this process. While establishing the fund is certainly a win for developing countries and those on the frontlines of climate change, it’s an empty shell without finance. It’s far too little, far too late for those on the frontlines of climate change. But we will work on it.”
Alex Scott, a climate diplomacy expert at the think tank E3G views today’s development on loss and damage as a first step but says getting the funding tied down is always complicated. Case in point: the failure of the Global North to meet its $100 billion annual pledge to the Green Climate Fund.
"I think this is huge to have governments coming together to actually work out at least the first step of ... how to deal with the issue of loss and damage," Scott said.