The United Nations Conference on Climate Change, COP27, was set to end this Friday in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, but the end may be delayed as fundamental questions remain open, especially regarding funding.
COP27 started on November 6, with the participation of almost all countries in the world, and is scheduled to end next Friday, with climate change mitigation and adaptation measures and support for least developed countries, most affected by the global warming.
On Thursday, Egypt’s COP presidency released a first draft of a 20-page final statement, but so far there has been no consensus on issues considered fundamental. The document maintains the goal of preventing temperatures from rising above 1.5ºC (degrees Celsius), but is inconclusive about loss and damage, one of the main topics of the conference.
The poorest countries expect a fund to emerge from the Sharm el-Sheikh conference to compensate for the losses and damage caused by climate change, for which they are least responsible.
The increasing ambition of countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to combat global warming is also one of the fundamental themes. So far, the planet has warmed between 1.1 and 1.2 degrees compared to pre-industrial times.
Although COP27 was due to end this Friday, the conference participants have considered that this is not possible and are already talking about “failing” because there is no agreement on compensation, despite the fact that UN Secretary General António Guterres , called on Thursday for countries to reach an “ambitious and credible” agreement, highlighting the need for immediate progress on loss and damage, fossil fuel mitigation and funding for adaptation and mitigation in poor countries.
On Thursday, the president of COP27 summarized the situation as follows, just over 24 hours before the end of the COP: “The mitigation work has not yet produced the desired result, adaptation is still being addressed, climate finance has not yet been loss and damage side, the parties avoid making the difficult political decisions”.
In the nearly two weeks of the meeting, there has yet to be a decision, announcement or agreement that would make COP27 a major success in its main objective of fighting climate change.
On Thursday evening, the COP27 presidency informed those attending the conference that the facilities will be available until Sunday and that catering and transport will also be available until that day.
Source: DN
