UN Publishes COP27 Draft Climate Deal - The Daily Star

Middle East Journalism Without Fear or Favour
FRIDAY, November 18, 2022

UN publishes COP27 draft
climate deal
Text retains 1.5C limit, but many contentious issues remain unresolved
Reuters, Sharm El-Sheikh

Fri Nov 18, 2022 12:00 AM Last update on: Fri Nov 18, 2022 12:00 AM
T he first draft of a deal being hashed out at the COP27 climate

summit in Egypt would keep a target of limiting global warming to
1.5 degrees Celsius but left many of the most contentious issues in
the talks unresolved ahead of a deadline.
Egypt's COP27 president urged negotiators to speed up the pace on

overcoming their differences, while poor nations slammed the
draft for failing to address their need for funds to cope with
damage already being wrought by climate-driven storms, droughts
and floods.
"Time is not on our side, let us come together now and deliver by
Friday [today]," COP27 President Sameh Shoukry said in a letter to
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delegates dated Wednesday and published yesterday.
The 20-page UN draft for a hoped-for final agreement repeats the

goal from last year's Glasgow Climate Pact to limit warming to 1.5C,
and asks countries "to accelerate measures towards the phase down
of unabated coal power and phase out and rationalize inefficient
fossil fuel subsidies."
It also "welcomes" the fact that delegates had begun discussions on

launching a so-called loss and damage fund for countries being
ravaged by climate impacts, but did not include details for
launching it.
Climate-vulnerable countries including tiny island nations want

the agreement to lead to a fund, and soon, but wealthy countries
have resisted the idea over fear such a deal could open them up to
endless financial liability for their historical contribution to
greenhouse gas emissions.
Delegates have worried the sticking point could stymie agreement

at COP27, this year's edition of the annual United Nations meeting
that aims at global action to slow climate change and the damage it
causes.
"The main thing missing from the cover decision is a clear

commitment for financial support for loss and damage for the most
vulnerable, and a facility to deliver it," said a Henry Kokofu of
Ghana, a spokesperson for the Climate Vulnerable Forum of
climate-vulnerable nations.
"If the text is not corrected, COP27 will fail the world's most
vulnerable," he said.
EU climate policy chief Frans Timmermans said the first draft left a
lot to be desired.
"The cover text still needs a tremendous amount of work," he told
Reuters. "So, we will continue the discussions and will give our
input and hope that we can find this common ground before the
end of the COP."
On limiting the global temperature rise, the document mirrors

language included in last year's COP26 agreement, stressing "the
importance of exerting all efforts at all levels to achieve the Paris
Agreement temperature goal of holding the increase in the global
average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels
and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C
above pre-industrial levels."
US Special Climate Envoy John Kerry had said last week that a few
of the nearly 200 countries gathered for the talks in Sharm el-
Sheikh had been resisting language around 1.5C, but declined to
name them.
Scientists say limiting average planetary warming to 1.5C is

important to averting the worst effects of climate change.
Temperatures have already increased by 1.1C.
While last year's climate summit had also agreed to call on

countries to outright phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies, this
year's draft encourages efforts to "phase out and rationalize
inefficient fossil fuel subsidies."
Catherine Abreu of the E3G non-profit worried that tweak to the

language could represent a weakening of the goal. "Instead of a
reference to phasing out all fossil fuels we have an even weaker
version of the language around coal and fossil fuel subsidies than
we got last year," she said.
Other unresolved issues include calls for boosting a global goal for
finance to help developing countries adapt to the impacts of a
warmer world, and plans for ratcheting up targets for cutting
climate-warming emissions.


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Middle East Journalism Without Fear or Favour

FRIDAY, November 18, 2022

Reuters, Sharm El-Sheikh

T he first draft of a deal being hashed out at the COP27 climate

Egypt's COP27 president urged negotiators to speed up the pace on

The 20-page UN draft for a hoped-for final agreement repeats the

It also "welcomes" the fact that delegates had begun discussions on

Climate-vulnerable countries including tiny island nations want

Delegates have worried the sticking point could stymie agreement

"The main thing missing from the cover decision is a clear

On limiting the global temperature rise, the document mirrors

Scientists say limiting average planetary warming to 1.5C is

While last year's climate summit had also agreed to call on

Catherine Abreu of the E3G non-profit worried that tweak to the

Journalism Without Fear or Favour

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