Countries participating in the climate summit in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt, have still not reached a final climate agreement on Saturday evening. Although international news agencies report that a final agreement is in sight, the climate summit, which was originally supposed to last until last Friday, is threatening to enter a second extension day. “We do our best. Little, little things still need to be worked out,” the spokesperson for UN Summit President Sameh Shoukry told Reuters news agency.
Chairman Shoukry shared one earlier in the day draft version of the agreement. The text reaffirmed previous commitments by countries to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, but lacked ambition and plans for emissions reductions needed to meet that goal.
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After days of negotiations, Saturday afternoon’s summit did deliver a breakthrough proposal: a compensation fund to help poor, vulnerable countries ravaged by irreparable damage from global warming. The United States and wealthy European countries have resisted this idea for years, partly for fear of being held accountable for their historically high emissions of harmful gases.
Oil and gas
Although the idea of the compensation fund would have received widespread support, there is still uncertainty about which countries are eligible for aid. The European Union also came up with a condition: today’s major polluters, including China, must contribute to the fund. In addition, the EU demanded that other countries show greater efforts to drastically reduce CO2 emissions.
Another issue to be resolved during the nightly negotiations is whether stronger commitments should be made on fossil fuels. Last year at the climate summit in Glasgow, countries agreed to phase out the use of coal. This year, that same conversation is about oil and gas. And that proposal is strongly opposed by oil and gas-rich countries, including Saudi Arabia and Russia.