Nations at UN climate talks were haggling yesterday over the world’s plan to avert disaster as host Poland dumped a draft decision text on delegates just hours before the summit was due to end.
Negotiators told reporters that delegates from nearly 200 nations were still far apart on several issues, from how the fight against climate change is funded to the levels of help given to countries already experiencing its effects.
Ministers at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change must agree on a common rule book to make good on promises made by countries in the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Photo: EPA-EFE
One negotiator said there were “several areas of concern” surrounding the draft decision text.
A major sticking point remains finance: Developing nations have said they cannot afford to make their economies greener without reliable, transparent funding from richer nations.
In the draft text there was no resolution on the key issue of finance, and developed nations were accused of seeking to shirk funding promises made in Paris.
ActionAid global climate lead Harjeet Singh said that rich countries were “playing a cruel joke” on developing nations.
“There is no obligation on their part on finance, both in terms of how much money they are going to provide and how to count that money,” he said.
The draft text gave short shrift to another red-line issue for poor countries exposed to the ravages brought on by global warming: so-called “loss and damage.”
Cutting emissions and helping nations prepare for the future have long been the twin pillars of the forum, but more recently, a third plank was added to help nations cope with heatwaves, drought and floods happening today.
“It is extremely concerning that loss and damage has been relegated to a footnote in the current draft,” WWF delegation lead Mark Lutes said.
Xie Zhenhua (謝振華), China’s top climate negotiator, said his country “will do what we can” to get a deal in Katowice.
“We may get an outcome that everyone may not be entirely satisfied with, but can accept,” he said.
The expectation was that talks were to go deep into overtime, with a number of key issues still unresolved.
One potential breakthrough came in the form of a tentative consensus over how to treat the latest UN scientific report.
Most nations wanted the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — which called for greenhouse gas emissions to be slashed to nearly half by 2030 to hit the 1.5°C target — to form a key part of future planning.
However, the US, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Kuwait objected, leading to watered-down language in the draft decision.
Dozens of schoolchildren took part in a strike inside the complex called by student Greta Thunberg.
“For two weeks, Greta has been alone pushing leaders to deliver a climate deal. Today we answer her call,” 15-year-old schoolgirl Malgorzata Czachowska said. “The time for talk is over — the time for action is now.”
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