Sleep-deprived COP26 negotiators yesterday struggled to bridge deep divisions holding up a deal to deliver the emissions cuts and financial support needed to avert the accelerating disaster of climate change.
A new draft text, released deep into overtime by the Glasgow summit’s UK presidency, urged nations to accelerate efforts to phase out unfiltered coal and “inefficient” fossil fuel subsidies.
Large emitters such as China, Saudi Arabia and Russia had tried to remove the mention of polluting fuels, delegates have said.
After resistance from rich nations led by the US and EU, the draft text omitted any reference to a specific finance facility for “loss and damage” — the mounting cost of global warming so far — which has been a key demand of poorer nations.
The text noted “with deep regret” that wealthy nations had also failed to stump up a separate annual sum of US$100 billion they promised more than a decade ago, but said only that it would come by 2023.
Greenpeace International executive director Jennifer Morgan said that the language on fossil fuels “is far from what is needed, but sends a signal; I dare countries to take that out of the text right now.”
“The US has to support the most vulnerable on the issue of loss and damage. They cannot avoid this issue any longer. Nor can the European Union,” she said. “I would call on President [Joe] Biden to do what’s right, and support the most vulnerable in helping them deal with their losses.”
The US and EU delegations did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
International Centre for Climate Change and Development director Saleemul Huq said that the British COP26 presidency had been “bullied” overnight into rejecting specific loss and damage funding.
“The UK’s words to the vulnerable countries have been proven to be totally unreliable,” he said.
One observer party to discussions said that they expected developing nations to “push back and try to turn the dialogue into something that is not endless blah, blah, blah.”
The third round of revisions since Wednesday came after frenetic haggling that stretched overnight past the summit’s scheduled conclusion on Friday evening.
Countries already battered by climate disasters such as record-breaking drought, flooding and storms are demanding they be compensated separately for loss and damage, and have made it a red-line issue.
However, a proposal to include the creation of a dedicated facility to administer financial support was quashed by historical emitters, delegates said.
In its place was a line offering “dialogue to discuss the arrangements for the funding of activities” on loss and damage.
Amadou Sebory Toure, head of the G77+China negotiating bloc, said the proposal was “put forward by the entire developing world, representing six of every seven people on Earth.”
He said separate finance was needed “to effectively respond to our needs to address the loss and damage being inflicted on our peoples, our communities, our economies, by the impacts of climate change.”
Developing nations say they want specific instruction on how they can meet the bill of decarbonizing, while also adapting to the natural disasters supercharged by global warming.
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