COP27 gets chaotic with mysterious draft text, elusive president
DIPLOMATS from rich and poor countries, observers from non-profits and activists meeting in Egypt for the United Nations-sponsored climate talks are finding themselves in the unusual position of agreeing on something: This is chaos. There is collective exasperation among attendees at the COP27 summit over the status of talks essential to advance humanity’s fight against climate change as the summit nears the end.
Delegates in the Egyptian town of Sharm El-Sheikh woke up on Thursday (Nov 17), just a day before the official close of the meeting, to a 20-page document gathering a wide variety of proposals for the “cover decision” – the political statement outlining the goals and commitments that all climate negotiating parties are supposed to agree upon.
The presidency’s document confused delegations and was mistaken as a draft of the final declaration – at least until Egyptian officials clarified it was just a collection of ideas. Still, the document came out late in the process, lacked key demands by some countries and included statements that outraged others, several delegates and observers told Bloomberg.
“This will be quite a long and difficult journey – I’m not sure where these talks will land,” the European Commission’s climate chief Frans Timmermans told journalists in Sharm El-Sheikh on Thursday. “If this COP fails, we all lose, we have absolutely no time to lose.”
Broad statements ratified by the almost 200 nations that make up the annual Conference of Parties climate meeting serve as the basis for climate action globally. In 2015, countries signed the Paris Agreement, pledging to cut greenhouse gas emissions in order to keep global warming below 2 deg C or close to 1.5 deg C by the end of the century, from pre-industrial times.
The COP27 Egyptian presidency wasn’t aiming for an ambitious cover text and focused instead on the “implementation” of existing agreements – but very little progress has happened there too.
BT in your inbox
Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.
“It has been good to have the first days as days of implementation,” Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, former environment minister of Peru and president of COP20 in Lima, said during a speech on the sidelines of COP27. “These last two days are to take decisions – this COP has to deliver and we are not seeing that yet.”
Across the conference, frustration with the Egyptian presidency built up, following a slow first week marred by fears of state surveillance and difficulties in getting food, water and accommodation. While informal negotiations on the key issue of loss and damage began before the summit, other talks did not formally kick off until earlier this week, with the presidency appointing pairs of ministers to negotiate key items much later than usual.
COP27 President and Egyptian Foreign Affairs Minister Sameh Shoukry has been notably absent from the process, both publicly in press briefings and behind closed doors in meetings with ministers and delegations. Several delegates questioned his hands-off approach, as well as the Egyptian presidency’s lack of direction and preparation ahead of the gathering.
In a meeting with Shoukry on Thursday, COP26 President Alok Sharma, Timmermans and Canada’s Minister for the Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault emphasised the need to make sure the outcome from COP27 is ambitious, said a senior country official.
Shoukry said by video link on Thursday morning: “Whatever circulation you might have seen is still a work in progress, and I don’t think one should jump to any conclusions. We are still in a phase of deliberations to see how best to provide a cover decision that responds to the interests of parties and doesn’t provide any form of backtracking or relinquishing of any previous commitments.”
To be sure, individual negotiating countries bear responsibility too, veteran COP observers said.
“Clearly, waiting late in the game to get going on the cover text and engaging ministers was the presidency’s decision,” said Alden Meyer, a senior associate of E3G. “But part of it is the games that are being played by other countries – both developed and developing countries – in this process to take negotiating hostages and hold their cards until the very last minute.”
The presidency’s text, a version of which is expected to be turned into an official statement some time this week, lacked any references to phasing down oil and gas in addition to coal, a step that would be seen as meaningful progress over last year’s agreement in Glasgow to phase down unabated coal power.
Developing nations advocating for a compensation mechanism for the impacts of climate-fuelled extreme weather events – known as loss and damage – fumed at the lack of references to a fund, a facility or a mechanism in the text.
Another section of the document circulated Thursday morning suggested that poor nations can only cut emissions with contributions from the developed world. E3G’s Meyer said those nations need support for decarbonisation at the rate that science demands, but making mitigation contingent on funding is not consistent with the Paris accord and only “inflames passions”.
Perhaps one of the strangest references in the text was a line asking that rich nations dramatically decarbonise this decade and “attain net-negative carbon emissions by 2030” – language that blindsided developed countries.
“It’s always good to call on developed nations to accelerate,” Timmermans said. “But let’s stay real, come on.” BLOOMBERG
Share with us your feedback on BT's products and services
