[Experts say biggest economies must pledge more cuts to carbon
emissions but hail agreement to set up loss and damage fund]
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WORLD STILL ‘ON BRINK OF CLIMATE CATASTROPHE’ AFTER COP27 DEAL  
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Fiona Harvey
November 20, 2022
The Guardian
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_ Experts say biggest economies must pledge more cuts to carbon
emissions but hail agreement to set up loss and damage fund _

More than 33 million people in Pakistan have been affected by this
year’s floods, according to the country’s climate change
minister., Nadeem Khawar/EPA

 

The world still stands “on the brink of climate catastrophe”
after the deal reached at the Cop27 UN climate summit
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Sunday, and the biggest economies must make fresh commitments to cut
greenhouse gas emissions, climate experts and campaigners have warned.

The agreement reached in Sharm el-Sheikh early on Sunday morning,
after a marathon final negotiating session that ran 40 hours beyond
its deadline
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was hailed for providing poor countries for the first time with
financial assistance known as loss and damage
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A fund will be set up by rich governments
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the rescue and rebuilding of vulnerable areas stricken by climate
disaster, a key demand of developing nations for the last 30 years of
climate talks.

But the outcome was widely judged a failure on efforts to cut carbon
dioxide, after oil-producing countries and high emitters weakened and
removed key commitments on greenhouse gases and phasing out fossil
fuels.

Mary Robinson, chair of the Elders Group of former world leaders,
ex-president of Ireland and twice a UN climate envoy, said: “The
world remains on the brink of climate catastrophe. Progress made on
[cutting emissions] has been too slow. We are on the cusp of a clean
energy world, but only if G20 leaders live up to their
responsibilities, keep their word and strengthen their will. The onus
is on them.”

António Guterres, secretary general of the UN, warned: “Our planet
is still in the emergency room. We need to drastically reduce
emissions now – and this is an issue this Cop did not address
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The world still needs a giant leap on climate ambition.”

Oil-producing countries had thwarted attempts to strengthen the deal,
said Laurence Tubiana, one of the architects of the 2015 Paris climate
agreement, now chief executive of the European Climate Foundation.
“The influence of the fossil fuel industry was found across the
board,” she said. “This Cop has weakened requirements around
countries making new and more ambitious commitments [on cutting
emissions]. The text [of the deal] makes no mention of phasing out
fossil fuels, and scant reference to the 1.5C target.”

She blamed the host country, Egypt, for allowing its regional
alliances to sway the final decision, a claim hotly denied by the
hosts. Next year’s conference of the parties under the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change (Cop) will take place in Dubai, hosted by
the United Arab Emirates, one of the world’s biggest oil exporters.

Tubiana warned: “The Egyptian presidency produced a text that
clearly protects oil and gas petro-states and the fossil fuel
industries. This trend cannot continue in the UAE next year.”

At the talks
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nearly 200 countries agreed that a fund for loss and damage, which
would pay out to rescue and rebuild the physical and social
infrastructure of countries ravaged by extreme weather events, should
be set up within the next year.

However, there is no agreement yet on how much money should be paid
in, by whom, and on what basis. A key aim for the EU at the talks was
to ensure that countries classed as developing in 1992 when the UNFCCC
was signed – and thus given no obligations to act on emissions or
provide funds to help others – are considered potential donors
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These could include China, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, and
Russia.

Under the final agreement, such countries can contribute on a
voluntary basis.

John Kerry, the US special presidential envoy for climate, who tested
positive for Covid on Friday night and spent the rest of the summit
self-isolating in his hotel, fixed China in his sights in a statement
after the conference concluded.

“Reducing emissions in time is about maths, not ideology. That’s
why all nations have a stake in the choices China makes in this
critical decade,” he said. China is the world’s biggest emitter of
greenhouse gases, as well as the world’s second biggest economy, and
comes second only to the US in cumulative historical emissions since
the industrial revolution.

“The US and China should be able to accelerate progress together
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not only for our sake, but for future generations. And we are all
hopeful that China will live up to its global responsibility.”

Paul Bledsoe, a former Clinton White House climate adviser, now with
the Progressive Policy Institute in Washington DC, said: “It’s
time for the US to work with developing nations to put pressure on
China, or climate protection will become impossible. China should be a
climate outcast, along with Russia.”

Several key commitments championed by the UK, which hosted last
year’s Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow, were dropped from the final
deal, at the behest mainly of Saudi Arabia and other petro-states,
though the Guardian understands that China, Russia and Brazil also
played a role in weakening some aspects.

These included a target for global emissions to peak by 2025, in line
with the goal of limiting temperature rises to 1.5C above
pre-industrial levels, the threshold of safety that was the focus of
the Glasgow Climate Pact signed last year at Cop26.

Although the final text did include the commitment to limiting
temperature rises to 1.5C, the language was regarded as weak and
marking no progress on the outcome of Cop26 a year ago.

Alok Sharma, the UK’s Cop26 president
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sacked as a minister by Rishi Sunak, was visibly angry at the close of
the conference. “Those of us who came to Egypt to keep 1.5C alive,
and to respect what every single one of us agreed to in Glasgow, have
had to fight relentlessly to hold the line. We have had to battle to
build on one of the key achievements of Glasgow, the call on parties
to revisit and strengthen their [national plans on emissions].”

In Glasgow, in the final moments a commitment to phase out coal was
watered down by China and India to a phase down of coal, a last-minute
trial that reduced Sharma to the brink of tears. At Cop27
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efforts to include a phase down of all fossil fuels in the text, but
it was reduced in the final stages to a simple repetition of the
Glasgow commitment to phase down coal.

Sharma listed commitments weakened or lost, hitting the table for
emphasis: “We joined with many parties to propose a number of
measures that would have contributed to this. Emissions peaking before
2025, as the science tells us is necessary. Not in this text. Clear
follow-through on the phase down of coal. Not in this text. A
commitment to phase out all fossil fuels. Not in this text. And the
energy text, weakened in the final minutes [to endorse
“low-emissions energy”, which can be interpreted as a reference to
gas].”

In the end the responsibility will lie with everyone, as Meena Raman
of Third World Network, an adviser to developing countries, points
out. “Since the EU and Alok Sharma are disappointed that fossil fuel
phase-out is not in the text, we would like them to take leadership
and revise their NDCs [nationally determined contributions] and put
into plans their fossil fuel phase-out urgently and stop expansion of
fossil fuels including oil and gas. [It’s] not enough to play to the
gallery but act if they really want to save the planet and not hide
behind 2050 net zero targets, which will bust the remaining carbon
budget for 1.5C.”

Sharma concluded: “I said in Glasgow that the pulse of 1.5C was
weak. Unfortunately, it remains on life support.”

_FIONA HARVEY is the Guardian's environment correspondent_

_There can be no more hiding, and no more denying. Global heating is
supercharging extreme weather at an astonishing speed. Guardian
analysis recently revealed how human-caused climate breakdown is
accelerating the toll of extreme weather across the planet. People
across the world are losing their lives and livelihoods due to more
deadly and more frequent heatwaves, floods, wildfires and droughts
triggered by the climate crisis._

_At the Guardian, we will not stop giving this life-altering issue the
urgency and attention it demands. We have a huge global team of
climate writers around the world and have recently appointed an
extreme weather correspondent. _

_Our editorial independence means we are free to write and publish
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* Climate Change
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* Developing countries
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* greenhouse gases
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* infrastructure
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* sustainable energy
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