Negotiators from nearly 200 countries concluded two weeks of climate change talks early Sunday morning, with their crowning achievement reaching an agreement to set up a fund to help poor, vulnerable countries fight climate disasters exacerbated by rich-country pollution that dangerously warms the environment. . planet.

The decision on payments for damages caused by climate change is an important step in resolving one of the most contentious issues in the UN climate negotiations. For more than three decades, developing countries have been pressing for reparations for the losses and disasters they suffer, asking rich industrialized countries to provide compensation for the cost of devastating hurricanes, heat waves and droughts caused by global warming.

But the United States and other rich countries have long blocked the idea, fearing they could be held legally responsible for greenhouse gas emissions that lead to climate change.

The Sharm el-Sheikh agreement states that countries cannot be held legally responsible for payments. The agreement calls for a committee of 24 countries to work over the next year to determine exactly what form the fund should take, which countries should contribute and where the money should go. Many other details are yet to be clarified.

The final message, which is the result of many compromises, was eventually adopted unanimously and calls for a “rapid” reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, but does not include any new targets from the previous Glasgow COP.

The text on cutting greenhouse gas emissions has also sparked protests, with many countries complaining that it falls short of commitments made at previous conferences, such as limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times.

Although this forecast is mentioned in the final message, based on the countries’ current commitments, the target cannot be reached, and the goal of limiting the increase in the Earth’s temperature to 2 degrees Celsius also seems unattainable.

Under the country’s current commitments, the world is on track for a 2.4 degrees Celsius temperature rise by the end of the century and, at current emission rates, a catastrophic scenario of 2.8 degrees Celsius.

“We need to drastically cut emissions now, and this is a question that the COP has not answered,” commented UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

Another topic that caused excitement at COP27 was the limitation of greenhouse gas emissions.

Many countries viewed the texts proposed by the Egyptian presidency as a step back from the commitments made last year in Glasgow.

“This COP has limited countries’ commitment to submit new and more ambitious targets,” complained Lawrence Toubiana, author of the Paris Climate Agreement, in 2015.

Without taking into account the issue of reducing the use of fossil fuels, which are responsible for global warming, but are not mentioned in most climate decisions.

The text of COP26 included a mention of coal after intensive negotiations, but in Sharm el-Sheikh, the “usual suspects”, as one delegate put it, again refused to mention oil and gas.

An unprecedented reference in the final text of the conference calls for the development of renewable energy sources, along with “low-emission” energies, an expression commonly used for nuclear power.

Frans Timmermans: Agreement is not a satisfactory step

This morning, the EU said it was “disappointed” with its lack of ambition to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Saying that “something needs to be done in this decade” to address climate change or it will be too late, EU Vice President Frans Timmermans criticized the COP27 statement, noting that “what we have in front of us is not enough step for people and the planet.” .

“Sufficient additional efforts by major polluters are not foreseen to increase and accelerate reductions in emissions” of greenhouse gases, he stressed.

According to NYT, Reuters