The European Union agreed on November 18 a fund for losses and damages to help countries with fewer resources in the face of climatic disasters. The offer highlights the positions of the US and China that have opposed financing this key demand. The bloc’s proposal has yet to be endorsed in a final agreement, after COP27 will be extended for another day in an attempt to break the deadlock.
The European Union changes its position and promotes the stalled talks at COP27.
The bloc of 27 countries put on the table the creation of a fund to respond to disasters caused by climate change in low-income nations, usually the least polluting.
The losses and damages that the fund would address relate to the ravages of extreme weather on the physical and social infrastructure of the most vulnerable countries and the funding needed for rescue and reconstruction after global warming-related disasters. .
The EU pact, which must be endorsed in a final agreement at the summit that brings together nearly 200 countries, would be financed by a “broad donor base.”
The fund would not operate in isolation, but as part of a mosaic of solutions that includes the reform of the multilateral development banks, among other measures.
The proposal suggests that emerging and greenhouse gas emitting economies such as China would have to contribute.
The European Union had previously resisted the idea, but its change of stance highlights powerful powers and big polluters such as China and the United States, which have opposed such a plan, arguing that it would take time to establish whether such a fund was needed. type and how it would work.
Their reluctance, however, is also fueled by fears that passing such a measure would open the door to spiraling liabilities for countries whose historic emissions drove climate change.
“We were averse to a fund, it was not our idea to have a fund. My reluctance was because I know from experience that it takes time before a fund can be established, and longer before it is filled, while we have existing instruments I really believe that we could move faster with the existing instruments (for climate finance). But since they (the G77) are so attached to a fund, we have agreed,” said the vice president of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, who launched the proposal on behalf of the EU, this Friday, November 18.
Although this is the main and first proposal, the text presented by Brussels has three options in total for a possible final agreement. The other two remaining alternatives are to delay a decision on a fund until next year’s COP28 summit and to decide on funding arrangements at COP28, without mentioning a new fund.
Agreements at the UN climate talks must be made with the support of all the nearly 200 countries involved.
“It all comes down to political will (…) This is the time for concessions and compromises. Let’s hope common ground is found,” stressed Preety Bhandari of the World Resources Institute.
“It’s crunch time”: Proposal puts more pressure on US and China
Now all eyes are on the United States and China. The Brussels announcement puts far greater pressure on the world’s top two polluters, which have so far avoided the obligation to provide climate disaster finance to the poorest countries, despite being the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases and the largest economies on the planet.
“It’s crunch time … There is no time for the United States to sit on the sidelines anymore. They have to make their position known to show that they are being constructive,” said Rachel Cleetus, principal economist at the climate program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
For many developing countries, and small island states threatened by rising sea levels, the driving issues of the conference are budgeting for “loss and damage” caused by climate change.
A cascade of weather extremes in recent months, from floods in Pakistan and Nigeria to heatwaves and droughts around the world, have highlighted the ferocious impacts of a warming world for developing nations, which are also they are struggling with debt and high inflation.
Facing flooding from rising sea levels, Maldives Climate Minister Shauna Aminath stressed that the new EU offer raises hopes for a deal.
“We welcome the interventions and the openness and the will to forge an agreement (…) We are very close to reaching an agreement, let’s commit to each other and make it happen,” Aminath said.
Reduction of polluting gases
The fund’s offer for damages and repairs seeks to be linked to a global commitment to reduce greenhouse gases.
The EU attached conditions to its offer. Among them are countries agreeing to increase their ambition to cut emissions that lead to dangerous global warming. The 27-nation bloc has one of the most ambitious climate targets of any major greenhouse gas emitter, and has urged China to improve on its own.
“This would have to be a global deal,” Timmermans remarked.
The EU made it clear that it expects stricter provisions in the national plans of other nations, in line with the objectives outlined in the historic Paris Agreement, signed in 2015 within the framework of COP21.
At that time, world leaders agreed on efforts to keep the increase in the average temperature of the planet below 2ºC, with respect to pre-industrial levels, and seek that this increase has a limit of 1.5ºC. Objectives that are still essential.
With Reuters and local media
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