The EU countries also agree with the final declaration of the climate summit. In the night from Friday to Saturday, the European Union was the biggest opponent. “With this agreement we are taking a step forward in the field of adaptation,” said EU Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra after a meeting with European ministers on Saturday morning local time. “But we hoped for more.”
The biggest stumbling block was the level of ambition that the final declaration shows regarding mitigation, reducing greenhouse gas emissions. There was intense debate over a proposal to create a roadmap on phasing out fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are the biggest cause of global warming. But it still appears to be too difficult to write down in clear terms that the end of fossil fuels is really about to begin. Such a formulation does not make it into the final statement.
The United Nations is organized in such a way that all countries must agree to the final declaration. The oil-producing countries are completely against it and have held their ground. To the anger of European countries, among others.
The final declaration does include an amount for adaptation, resilience to climate change. That was another big point of discussion. The amount will be tripled to 120 billion dollars (more than 100 billion euros). A set of indicators that should measure how countries are doing with adaptation has also been approved.
Actually, the climate summit should have ended yesterday. But late in the evening (local time), negotiators were still in intensive discussions. Europe took an unusually tough stance. Hoekstra said on Friday that he found the texts on reducing greenhouse gas emissions that had appeared so far “weak”. “We will not accept this under any circumstances.”
The phasing out of fossil fuels is not completely off the table. Brazil comes up with one side text about a route to the end of fossil fuels. Because it is not part of the official final declaration, not all countries have to agree to it. It is not yet clear which countries will commit to it.
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