Source : PortMac.News | Street :
Source : PortMac.News | Street | News Story:
News Story Summary:
After two weeks of negotiations, an agreement vital to the future of earth is yet to be agreed.
If it is kept in the final text, the progress on loss and damage, a central theme of the summit for developing countries, is an “Historic step”, according to Maisa Rojas, Chile’s environment minister, although she noted much more needed to be done to keep the 1.5C goal viable.
There are still grumbles – the opposition from Russia and Saudi Arabia to any mention of winding down the era of fossil fuels among them – but activists are hopeful of taking away something positive from Cop27.
Meanwhile Jean Su, energy justice director at the Center for Biological Diversity, was full of positivity. “The country pavilions are torn down and the water tanks empty, but the spirits are high. Climate-vulnerable nations and civil society are beaming at a big step forward on creating a loss and damage fund, more than a decade in the making.”
Su said that the openness of the US to phasing out fossil fuels – the Americans are also believed to be largely on board with attempts to create a loss and damage facility – has added to the encouragement. “It shouldn’t feel this surreal, but it seems like for this fleeting moment politicians are listening to the people, not polluters,” she said.
Word from inside the heads of delegation meeting at #COP27 is that the Saudis and Russians are still saying any inclusion in text about fossil fuels is a red line.
Russia: "Unacceptable…We cannot make the energy situation worse"
Presumably said without any sense of irony...
correspondent Fiona Harvey has just had a brief conversation with the spokesperson for the Egyptian Cop presidency, Ahmed Abu Zeid. Things are “progressing”, apparently.
US unlikely to block loss and damage fund:
UN climate summits work by consensus, which means any nation can block an agreement. In the closing plenary at Cop26 in Glasgow last year, India almost brought the Cop president Alok Sharma to tears by demanding that “phase out coal” was watered down to “phase down”.
A potential flashpoint for the closing plenary at Cop27 is the establishment of a loss and damage fund, which would provide money for poorer nations to rebuild after climate disasters. The US has long opposed this, fearing that – as the world’s biggest polluter over time – it could face huge liabilities.
But it looks unlikely that the US will block the loss and damage fund that is in the current draft text. A person close to the negotiations has just told my colleague Fiona Harvey: “The US is working to sign on [on loss and damage].”
The New York Times is also reporting that the US is willing to accept the creation of a loss and damage fund, while a source told Reuters the US is working to find a way it can agree to the proposal.
National delegates have been commenting as the negotiations at Cop27 enter the endgame :
Chris Bowen, Australia’s climate change minister, says:
“Australia’s position is clear and strong: there can be no sliding back from Glasgow and the text should be strengthened where possible.”
Kunal Satyarthi, India’s negotiator on loss and damage, says:
“Everybody was flexible for the cause of loss and damage and the disasters and people dying and the economy being lost. I thank all the parties ... who were not flexible initially, but who [are] flexible now.”
Original Story By | Bibi van der Zee