Fighting for the final declaration of the UN climate conference

Covering many unresolved issues, the 20-page report calls for the phasing out of climate-damaging coal, but not the abandonment of oil and gas. Environmental organizations on Thursday criticized the text as a “construction site”: too long, too vague and contradictory. But there are also bright spots.

Martin Kaiser, executive director of Greenpeace Germany, said the necessary output from oil and gas worldwide must now be included in the document with high pressure. Secretary of State Annalena Baerbock (The Greens) should personally campaign for this. “At the end of a two-week climate conference in the midst of climate collapse it is absolutely unacceptable to repeat at most the results of the previous year.”

Oxfam expert Jan Kowalzig also told the German Press Agency that it would be “a major oversight” if the COP27 climate conference did not give a clear signal that a shift away from all fossil fuels was inevitable. Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, criticized that not talking about fossil fuels when it comes to climate protection is like saying the economy isn’t about money.

The two-week conference, attended by around 34,000 people in Egypt, is scheduled to end on Friday. However, an extension is considered more and more likely.

Another unresolved issue is the demand for compensation for the damage suffered by poor countries due to, for example, droughts, floods or hurricanes that have become more frequent and frequent due to global warming. It remains unclear whether a new money pot will be established for this.

Tom Evans of climate think tank E3G said the US and EU should offer an ambitious package on compensation, known in UN jargon as “loss and damage.” Otherwise, there is a risk of watering other points. He summed it up: “We are not where we should be.” The Egyptian presidency lacks a “uniform vision” for consensus lines. The 20 pages of text is “incredibly long” with a lot of repetition and even some “pretty annoying internal contradictions”.

Catherine Abreu of the Canadian climate advisory body NZAB criticized that many “weasel words” with vague and ambiguous meanings had leaked into the text. Such remarks justify the “status quo” of asking for the phasing out of power generation from oil, gas and coal.

The text urges states to improve their largely inadequate climate protection plans until the next climate conference in the United Arab Emirates at the end of 2023 at the latest. Oxfam’s Kowalzig said he didn’t draw any useful conclusions that plans were too loose. “In this context, the text lacks the great urgency and political will to turn things around before the crucial 1.5°C limit is reached.”

In 2015, the states agreed to limit warming in Paris to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times. The world has now warmed well by 1.1 degrees, Germany even more. According to scientific warnings, exceeding 1.5 degrees significantly increases the risk of triggering elements called tipping in the climate system, and thus an uncontrollable chain reaction.

Germanwatch’s David Ryfisch told dpa that COP27 is far from an outcome that anyone can support. “It is worrying that the proposal is in some places lagging behind the results of last year’s world climate summit.” On the other hand, the strong reference to the results of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the need for a reform in the international financial architecture so that all money can flow into climate protection is positive.

(SDA)