Baerbock after UN climate declaration |
THIS is “more than frustrating”
After two weeks of tough negotiations, the delegates at the world climate conference in Egypt have reached an agreement.
► Early on Sunday morning, it was decided to set up a fund through which poorer countries and countries particularly threatened by global warming can receive compensation payments for climate-related damage and losses. To this end, a committee is to develop proposals for the next climate conference in a year’s time in Dubai.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres (73) called the new fund an important step towards justice. “Certainly that is not enough, but it is an urgently needed signal to rebuild lost trust.”
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (41, Greens) said: “We are opening a new chapter in climate policy.”
But the German Foreign Minister also criticizes harshly: “It is more than frustrating that the blockade by some major emitters and oil-producing countries prevented overdue steps to reduce and phase out fossil fuels.”
EU Vice-Commissioner Frans Timmermans (61) criticized the final declaration as “not enough as a step forward for people and the planet”.
It remains unclear whether only the industrialized countries or also emerging countries should pay into the fund. At the conference in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, China in particular, the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, clearly rejected financial commitments.
► A farewell to oil and gas is not mentioned in the final declaration. The declaration thus falls short of the demands of many states, climate activists and experts who see an end to dependence on dirty energy sources as imperative.
► Furthermore, the states agreed on a work program to reduce greenhouse gases by 2030. This is intended to achieve the goal of the Paris Climate Agreement of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees compared to the pre-industrial level.
At this point, the negotiations had stalled on Saturday night. The EU had threatened that the summit would fail because the G77 group of developing countries had insisted on wording that the work program would not entail any obligations.
In Sharm El Sheikh, delegates from more than 200 countries spent two weeks negotiating further implementation of the Paris climate agreement.
(yep, dpa)