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Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt) (AFP) – More than 100 world leaders gather Monday at COP27, the annual climate summit, under pressure to improve funding for the most vulnerable countries, wracked by the effects of warming.
The host and the Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, begin two days of intense talks in Sharm el-Sheikh, where Latin American leaders such as Colombian Gustavo Petro, Venezuelan Nicolas Maduro and the Europeans will participate. Like the French Emmanuel Macron or the German Olaf Schulz.
Instead, Xi Jinping, the president of China, which is by far the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, will be absent.
The agenda, set unanimously on Sunday among the nearly 200 participating countries, included a thorny issue that in recent years has pitted the most advanced nations against poor nations: the issue of damage and loss.
“All in the same boat”
During COP27, countries will discuss the creation of a Special Fund for the Rich to provide better financial instruments to developing countries, which have historically contributed very little to emissions and are currently suffering from the most severe effects of extreme events such as floods, droughts, fires or sea-level rise.
“We all thought, collectively, that it was important to talk about this,” a European diplomatic source told AFP, the issue of damage and casualties. “This solidarity is essential, because we are all in the same boat.”
So far, Europe and the United States have been hesitant, fearing that the most vulnerable countries could bring them to justice and demand reparations.
Concern dismissed by this diplomatic source, which is based on the text of the 2015 Paris Agreement, Egyptian Foreign Minister and COP 27 President Sameh Shoukry.
The deadline for a conclusion is 2024, and the inclusion of this item on the agenda does not guarantee the creation of this fund.
Which is that mistrust still prevails among the most developed and most vulnerable countries, especially when the former continue to fail to meet the latter’s mobilization goal of $100,000 million annually to help them reduce their emissions and also adapt. to the effects of climate change.
Added to the financial issue is the primary concern of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, in the context of the latest revolution due to the energy supply crisis in Europe, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the recovery of renewable gas.
Since last year, fewer than 30 countries have boosted their emissions cut targets, something they have all committed to.
Balance
With all the climatic indicators in the red record of emissions in 2021, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the rising ocean levels, and the temperature records of the past eight years—the summit was heralded as a delicate balancing act between demand for emissions reductions, and the argument of developing countries that The most industrialized countries cannot deny them the right to exploit their hydrocarbons now.
Time is compressing more and more, because, according to the latest UN forecast, warming can reach + 2.4 ° C by 2100 and even + 2.8 ° C if the current path continues.
Levels well above +1.5°C stipulated in the 2015 Paris Agreement, which still applies despite the fact that the temperature has already risen by 1.2°C compared to the pre-industrial era.
Costa Rican Minister of Environment and Energy, Franz Tattenbach, will promote an initiative already supported by more than 100 countries, which seeks to protect 30% of the planet’s land and oceans by 2030.
Similarly, Colombia’s Environment Minister, Susana Mohamed, will meet with her Norwegian counterpart, Espen Barth Eide, and representatives from Germany and the United Kingdom to mobilize funds to contain deforestation in the Amazon region.
© 2022 AFP
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