sharm el sheikh heading towards another night of negotiations against the clock. The climate summit Egyptian company was due to seal its final agreement on Friday. She didn’t make it. On Saturday, in what many believed was the final ‘sprint’ of the debate, divergences broke out. The European Unionfor example, threatened to leave the negotiating table if the pact did not include a clear commitment to further reduce the emissions cuts and thus achieve the famous objective of 1.5 degrees. the proposal ended garnering the support of a broad coalition of countries and reopened the debate on the final declaration of the summit.
The latest drafts of the Sharm el-Sheikh pacts point to the following scenario. On the one hand, everything indicates that the Egyptian summit was able to extract the promise to create a new fund to deal with the losses and damages caused by the climate crisis is wreaking havoc in the global south. According to the latest draft of the agreements, this economic mechanism would start now with the creation of a committee but it will not be defined until next year’s summit. At the Dubai meeting (COP28). The debate on this point seems to be quite closed, although a last-minute modification on some of the key definitions of this initiative is not ruled out (such as who will be the beneficiaries of this initiative and who should contribute the money).
The text launches a hitherto unpublished appeal and asks “reform the financial system” in order to achieve the collaboration of the large banks and financial entities in the creation of these funds. In this case, the collaboration of the world Bank and of the International Monetary Fund in the creation of these funds. This last request appears right next to a paragraph in which, once again, concern and reproach are repeated for not having reached the goal of 100,000 million dollars a year that developed countries promised to deliver to the global south to deal with to climatic disasters.
Target 1.5 degrees
The other point that at the moment marks the final ‘sprint’ of the climate summit are emission reduction plans. This Saturday, a large group of countries pressed as a block for the final agreement to include the need to reinforce emission reduction policies (and align them with the 1.5 target), reach the peak emissions in 2025 and commit to ending (or at least substantially reducing) oil, coal, and gas. The debate moved to a final technical meeting. The meeting started in the middle of the afternoon and lasted until late at night. At the end of the debate, several ministers affirmed that there are issues that still require work.
Right now, according to the latest draft released by the Egyptian presidency of the summit, the Sharm el-Sheikh agreement diffusely reflects red lines on mitigation. The document, for example, includes a mention of the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel of Experts on Climate Change (IPCC) on the need to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 43% by 2030, but does not detail any additional measures to achieve it. He asks, yes, the countries to present new cut plans at the Dubai summit (which is, broadly speaking, the same order that Glasgow left for Sharm el-Sheikh).
It also repeats the same speech from the Scottish summit on the need to “phase down” the use of coal and leave behind the “inefficient subsidies” to fossil fuels. At the moment, there is no direct mention of the need to eliminate (or drastically reduce) the exploitation of oil, gas and coal in the world. It seems that there are several countries that focus their final stretch of the negotiations on reinforce the message about the end of fossil fuels.
early morning negotiations
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Arrivals at 11 pm on Saturday, in the corridors of Sharm el-Sheikh uncertainty is breathed. It is not yet clear whether the latest high-level meeting has succeeded unclog some of these messes. Nor is it clear to what extent the final text is open to reflecting the debate of the last few hours. In theory, after the final ‘sprint’ this Saturday, the presidency of the summit should publish the final documents that will be submitted for final approval. From there, a plenary will be convened in which each country will take the floor to show their impressions on the agreement.
The most optimistic affirm that Sharm el-Sheikh could seal their pact this morning. Others, on the other hand, suggest that the final plenary session will be postponed to Sunday morning. It is not clear when exactly the Egyptian summit will end but, for a logistical matter, everything indicates that we are, now yes, in the final sprint.