{"id":144376,"date":"2022-11-19T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-19T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mediaintel.asia\/?p=909608"},"modified":"2022-11-19T08:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-11-19T00:00:00","slug":"maldives-minister-negotiators-reach-deal-on-climate-fund-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinalegalblog.com\/en\/2022\/11\/19\/maldives-minister-negotiators-reach-deal-on-climate-fund-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Maldives minister: negotiators reach deal on climate fund"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"MediaIntel.Asia\"<\/a><\/div>\n

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AP) \u2014 Negotiators say they have struck a potential breakthrough deal on the thorniest issue of United Nations climate talks, creation of a fund for compensating poor nations that are victims of extreme weather worsened by rich
\nSHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AP) \u2014 Negotiators say they have struck a potential breakthrough deal on the thorniest issue of United Nations climate talks, creation of a fund for compensating poor nations that are victims of extreme weather worsened by rich nations\u2019 carbon pollution.
\n\u201cThere is an agreement on loss and damage,\u201d which is what negotiators call the concept, Maldives Environment Minister Aminath Shauna told The Associated Press Saturday. It still needs to be approved unanimously in a vote later today. \u201cThat means for countries like ours we will have the mosaic of solutions that we have been advocating for.\u201d
\nSaturday afternoon\u2019s draft proposal came from the Egyptian presidency. A second overarching document from the climate talks leadership ignores India\u2019s call to phase down oil and natural gas, in addition to last year\u2019s agreement to wean the world from \u201cunabated\u201d coal.
\nAccording to the draft of the compensation proposal \u2014 the issue is called \u201closs and damage\u201d in negotiations parlance \u2014 developed countries would be \u201curged\u201d to contribute to the fund, which would also draw on other private and public sources of money such as international financial institutions. At the talks, the world\u2019s poorest nations, which contributed little to historic emissions of heat-trapping gases, have been unified in insisting on such a fund.
\n\u201cWe managed to make progress on an important outcome,\u201d said Wael Aboulmagd, who heads Egyptian delegation. \u201cI think we\u2019re getting there.\u201d
\nHowever, the proposal does not suggest that major emerging economies such as China have to contribute to the fund, which was a key ask of the European Union and the United States.
\nIt also does not tie the creation of the new fund to any increase in efforts to cut emissions, or restrict the recipients of funding to those countries that are most vulnerable, which had been an earlier proposal from the Europeans.
\nTwo drafts released by the Egyptian presidency, on efforts to step up emissions cuts and the overarching decision of this year\u2019s talks, barely build on what was agreed in Glasgow last year.
\nThe texts leave in place a reference to the Paris accords less ambitious goal of limiting global warming to \u201cwell below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit)\u201d which scientists say is far too risky.
\nThey also don\u2019t suggest any new short-term targets for either developing or developed countries, which experts say are needed to achieve the more ambitious 1.5C (2.7F) goal that would prevent some of the more extreme effects of climate change.
\nLoss and damage has been the all-consuming issue at the two weeks of talks.
\nThe EU made a surprise proposal days earlier tying a fund for climate disasters to emissions cuts that go beyond what the 2015 Paris climate agreement calls for. That landmark deal aims to limit global temperature increases to an ambitious 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit), and no change this year could be interpreted as not strengthening efforts.
\nThe meeting known as COP27 opened two weeks ago and had been scheduled to wrap up on Friday but looks set to drag on through the weekend.
\nEarlier on Saturday government delegations and the meeting\u2019s Egyptian hosts pointed fingers at each other.
\nGerman Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said responsibility for the fate of the talks \u201cnow lies in the hands of the Egyptian COP presidency.\u201d
\nShe said the European Union had made clear overnight that \u201cwe will not sign a paper here that diverges significantly from the 1.5 Celsius path, that would bury the goal of 1.5 degrees.\u201d
\n\u201cIf these climate conferences set us back then we wouldn\u2019t have needed to travel here in the first place,\u201d she said.
\nEgyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, speaking as the summit\u2019s chair, deflected blame.
\n\u201cThe issue now rests with the will of the parties,\u201d Shoukry said at a press conference. \u201cIt is the parties who must rise to the occasion and take upon themselves the responsibility of finding the areas of convergence and moving forward.\u201d
\nHe added that \u201call must show the necessary flexibility\u201d in reaching a consensus, and that Egypt was merely \u201cfacilitating this process.\u201d
\nIn another setback, top U.S. climate envoy John Kerry tested positive for COVID-19 though he only has mild symptoms and is working by phone with his negotiating team and foreign counterparts, his spokesperson said late Friday.
\nThroughout the climate summit, the American, Chinese, Indian and Saudi Arabian delegations have kept a low public profile, while European, African, Pakistan and small island nations have been more vocal.
\nA key sticking point remains over the issue called loss and damage. The world's poorest nations are insisting that western carbon polluting nations establish a fund to compensate nations hurt by climate extremes, such as Pakistan and its devastating flooding, as the developing world put little of the heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere.
\n\u201cThese negotiations won\u2019t work if it\u2019s pitching one country against the other, one block against the other,\u201d said Irish Environment Minister Eamon Ryan, one of the lead negotiators on loss and damage. \u201cThe only way it will work is if we sit down in collaboration and recognize we have common cause because we are in common peril and the only solution can be a good solution.\u201d
\nClimate advocacy group Power Shift Africa's Mohamed Adow blamed the United States and the European Union, saying \u201cthey\u2019re the two groups of parties that are currently blocking and delaying the delivery of our solidarity outcome out of Sharm el-Sheikh.\u201d
\n\u201cWe\u2019re now, I must say, very close to getting a loss and damage fund,\" Adow said. \"And because of that we\u2019re seeing one of the biggest historic polluters threatening to walk out.\u201d
\nThe United States may have moved a bit on its stance and seems more willing to accept the establishment of a loss and damage fund, but the division now is on where and how that fund is administered and who puts money into it, Waskow said.
\nMany of the more than 40,000 attendees have left town, and workers started packing up the vast pavilions in the sprawling conference zone.
\nCOP meetings have evolved over the years to resemble trade fairs, with many countries and industry groups setting up booths and displays for meetings and panel discussions.
\nAt many stands, chairs were stacked neatly ready for removal, and monitors had been taken away, leaving cables dangling from walls. Pamphlets and booklets were strewn across tables and floors. Snack bars, which the Egyptian organizers said would remain open through the weekend, were emptied out.
\nAt the youth pavilion, a gathering spot for young activists, a pile of handwritten postcards from children to negotiators was left on a table, in what was perhaps an apt metaphor for the state of play as the talks bogged down.
\n\u201cDear COP27 negotiators,\u201d read one card. \u201cKeep fighting for a good planet.\u201d
\nAn occasional gust of wind from the open doors nearby blew some of the cards onto the floor.
\n___
\nKelvin Chan and Theodora Tongas contributed to this report.
\n___
\nFollow AP\u2019s climate and environment coverage at https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/climate-and-environment
\n___
\nAssociated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP\u2019s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
\nSeth Borenstein, Samy Magdy And Frank Jordans, The Associated Press<\/p>\n

This data comes from MediaIntel.Asia's Media Intelligence and Media Monitoring Platform<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AP) \u2014 Negotiators say they have struck a potential breakthrough deal on the thorniest issue of United Nations climate talks, creation of a fund for compensating poor nations that are victims of extreme weather worsened by rich
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