By John Ikani
The Egyptian President of the UN Climate Conference, Sameh Shoukry, has told delegates that time is not on their side if a deal is to be concluded before the scheduled close of the conference on Friday.
There have been warnings that negotiations are progressing too slowly because of deep divisions on some central issues.
A draft agreement published on Thursday does not include directions for the launch of a loss and damage fund to assist the most vulnerable countries.
This has been a demand of many developing nations.
Nor does the draft introduce a broad commitment to phase down all fossil fuels, rather than just coal, as has been proposed by India and the European Union.
The talks are now widely expected to run well beyond their scheduled close of Friday evening. COP Summits rarely, if ever, finish on time, but seasoned observers have warned the current talks appear to be badly behind schedule.
As it stands, the outline a potential final cover agreement – which runs to a lengthy 20 pages – does continue to emphasise 1.5C as the critical temperature limit that the world should aim for to avoid the worst future climate impacts, and also stresses “the urgent need for immediate, deep, rapid and sustained reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions from all Parties”.
It also repeats a “request” for countries to revisit and strengthen their national climate plans for 2030 in line with the 1.5C goal, and stresses the critical role of ramping up renewable energy in support of decarbonisation, although it stops short of establishing a timetable for updated plans.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is reportedly set to return to the Summit today in an attempt to push negotiating teams towards an ambitious agreement that not just guards against backsliding on last year’s Glasgow Climate Pact, but delivers meaningful progress on climate finance, loss and damage, and global decarbonisation efforts.
