Status: 11/19/2022 5:31 p.m
Final push at the COP27. In the morning it still looked as if the UN climate conference would fail. But in the early afternoon there was hope again. The goal of a joint final declaration is getting closer.
After a long night of negotiations, a frustrated German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, appeared before the press this morning: “If text proposals are now circulating here that indicate that we do not need to increase our ambitions in the next ten years, then the 1.5-degree target would die here at this conference.”
1.5 degree target is again in the draft text
But it seems to have survived. At least another draft text for the final paper appeared in the early afternoon. The goals of the Paris climate agreement agreed seven years ago are back in there, which were missing in the draft in the morning. David Ryfisch from the environmental organization Germanwatch thinks that the EU can probably go home with this draft. “We’re not lagging behind Glasgow. 1.5 degrees is alive. We have the strongest call yet for renewable energy. That’s positive.”
Greenpeace less optimistic
Greenpeace boss Martin Kaiser is not that optimistic. In the eleven-page paper by the Egyptian conference leadership, all countries are calling for a gradual phase-out of coal. Saying goodbye to oil and gas is not an option. The Greens politician Baerbock had called for this again and again in the past few days.
According to Kaiser, the Foreign Minister must work to ensure that the EU only accepts one decision that means the end of all fossil fuels. After all, it is groundbreaking for the years to come. “This decision sends a clear signal to investors and investors to stop investing in the new development of gas fields in the future.”
compensation fund in sight
A possible solution has also resurfaced, such as how poorer countries can be financially supported in the event of climate-related damage caused by drought or floods. A compromise envisages setting up a fund for this purpose by 2024. Aid organizations see this as an important step.
However, the same applies here: the details, for example who will pay in there in the future, would only be clarified later. A joint final declaration has not yet been adopted. But the mood on the UN compound in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, is noticeably more hopeful. The end of the conference seems in sight.