The Vice-President of the European Commission indicated that he preferred “rather no agreement than a bad agreement” to the proposal made by the Egyptian presidency.
The European Union prefersdisagree rather than disagreein the climate negotiations at COP27, European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans said on Saturday. “We’re worried about some of the things we’ve seen and heard over the past 12 hours“, he said in front of journalists, adding that the objective of the Europeans was to keep “urge» the global warming limit of 1.5°C, the most ambitious objective of the Paris agreement.
Earlier in the morning, French Minister for Energy Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher had also expressed the EU’s concerns about the proposal of the Egyptian Presidency of the COP27 on the climate, judgedunacceptablebecause it calls into question past commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Read alsoCOP27: surprise proposal from Europe to unblock negotiations
“There is a risk that the 1.5°C target will die today“, alerted the minister in front of journalists. “Today, at this time, we still do not have a text on the table and the information presented to the EU delegation this night contains unacceptable setbacks in relation to the Paris agreements and the Glasgow agreements“, she added. These setbacks concern thegreenhouse gas reduction targets, allowing the trajectory to be maintained at 1.5°C“, specified Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
The Egyptian presidency defends itself
The Egyptian presidency defended itself, stating that the “large majorityof the countries finds the proposalsbalanced“. Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri blamed the parties on their responsibilities, calling for the “flexibilityand indicating that he was going to consult the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, present in Sharm el-Sheikh.
A cornerstone of the fight against climate change, the 2015 Paris Agreement aims to limit global warming.well below 2°C» compared to the pre-industrial era, and if possible at 1.5°C. This ambition was reaffirmed at COP26 in Glasgow last year. The objective of 1.5°C is “ambitious but essential if we want to limit the impact of global warming for the most vulnerable countries“, Hammered Agnès Pannier-Runacher on Saturday.
Read alsoCOP27: in 2022, Africa will be hit by the effects of the climate crisis
“The problem is that the Egyptian presidency is trying to pass a text that would lift the obligations of States to regularly raise the reduction targets for emissions to reach 1.5 degrees.“, we explained in the entourage of the minister, according to AFP. This 27th international climate conference has been extended by at least one day in the absence of agreement on several contentious points.
Negotiators from nearly 200 countries gathered in the seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh tried to make progress all night long on the most difficult points, such as the fate of fossil fuels or compensation for the damage already caused by climate change, them “loss and damage“. The Egyptian presidency, criticized for the delay in these complex climate negotiations under the aegis of the UN, had promised Friday, the theoretical day of the end of the negotiations, to take things in hand.
SEE ALSO – COP27: the EU puts its “final offer» on the table of difficult negotiations