The negotiations will have been tight but the consensus is there. The UN climate conference adopted a final declaration early this Sunday morning reaffirming the objective of containing global warming to 1.5°C, but without new ambitions for the reduction of greenhouse gases compared to the last Glasgow COP in 2021.
After more than two weeks, the major UN climate conference therefore ended more than a day behind schedule, making it one of the longest COPs in history. “It was not easy” but “we finally fulfilled our mission”, underlined the Egyptian president of the conference Sameh Choukri.
The regrets of Antonio Guterres
“We must drastically reduce emissions now – and this is a question that this COP has not answered”, regretted the Secretary General of the UN Antonio Guterres, at the end of the climate conference. In the process, the European Union said it was “disappointed” by the agreement on emissions.
However, this edition was marked by the adoption of an emblematic resolution, described as historic by its promoters, on compensation for the damage caused by climate change already suffered by the poorest countries. This issue of climate “losses and damage” in poor countries had almost derailed the conference, before being the subject of a last-minute compromise text which leaves many questions unanswered, but acknowledges the principle of the creation of a specific financial fund.
The text on emission reductions was also hotly contested, with many countries denouncing what they considered to be a step backwards, particularly on the objective of limiting global warming to 1.5°C compared to the pre-industrial era, which is however reaffirmed in the final decision. The current commitments of the signatory countries of the agreement do not allow this objective to be met, nor even that of containing the rise in temperature to 2°C compared to the pre-industrial era. These commitments, assuming they are fully met, would at best put the world on course for +2.4°C by the end of the century and, at the current rate of emissions, on that of a catastrophic +2.8 °C.
The battle will not end with the adoption of the Sharm el-Sheikh resolution since it remains deliberately vague on certain controversial points. Operational details must be defined for adoption at the next COP, at the end of 2023 in the United Arab Emirates, promising new confrontations.