It is still uncertain whether the countries participating in the climate summit in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt, will be able to agree on a final statement. European Commissioner Frans Timmermans said on Saturday morning that he preferred “no result” to “a bad result”. “All EU ministers are ready to walk away” if disagreements persist, Timmermans said according to international news agencies.
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The European Commissioner spoke on behalf of the EU with, among others, the United States and China. Timmermans characterizes the American attitude as “constructive”, but he claims to have heard too little “from the other side”, presumably referring to the Chinese entourage. Among other things, Timmermans wants the countries to commit to the climate goal of reducing global warming to 1.5 degrees. “We cannot accept that 1.5 degrees will be lost here and today.”
The summit was supposed to last until Friday. On Saturday morning, Dutch minister Rob Jetten (Climate and Energy, D66) already predicted the failure of an agreement. “It looks like we are going backwards on the Glasgow climate deal and that would be unacceptable,” said Jetten. In the Scottish city, the countries agreed a year ago, among other things, to stop subsidies for fossil fuels and to phase out the use of coal.
At the same time, there was also criticism of the “vague passages” of the international agreement. These were mainly about economic climate solidarity between prosperous and developing countries. Wealthier countries failed to honor their pledge to raise $100 billion annually to help developing countries affected by climate change.
Money
Money is also a hot topic during the current climate summit in Egypt. It is true that European Commissioner Timmermans previously promised that EU member states would be prepared to set up a compensation fund for poorer countries affected by global warming, but he did attach a number of conditions to this. For example, the European Commissioner wants money only to go to the poorest countries, and he also wants the final statement to focus on phasing out fossil fuels such as oil and gas.
The EU also calls for the United States, initially opposed to such a solidarity fund, to contribute. In addition, according to Timmermans, countries such as China, Qatar and Saudi Arabia must also provide part of the financing. Those countries are still officially classified as developing countries due to the economic situation of the past. China has already indicated that it is in favor of the fund, but that it does not want to contribute to it, because it is afraid of losing the stamp of a developing country.