COP27 ensures more climate justice and less climate protection

Regarding the global coal phase-out and fossil fuel subsidies, “this COP27 was not a success,” Environment Minister Simonetta Sommaruga wrote on Twitter after the end of the UN climate conference. After all, the worst could have been prevented. The 1.5 degree target remains achievable.

In their closing statement on Sunday morning, the 200 or so states reaffirmed their intention to phase out coal. A farewell to oil and gas was not mentioned.

In particular, countries with the highest greenhouse gas emissions, such as China, India, Indonesia and Brazil, rejected the obligation to implement plans, the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) writes. A group of developing countries has also rejected concrete measures to align global financial flows with the 1.5 degree target.

According to Sommaruga, “again big issuers and the strong oil and gas lobby” have blocked this. According to Alliance Sud, 600 fossil energy lobbyists attended the conference.

The criticism was justified, especially after the first week of negotiations, the head of the Swiss delegation, Franz Perrez, of the Keystone-SDA news agency said on Sunday. After two weeks and a 36-hour extension to the conference, however, he saw some progress. For example, a fund was set up to compensate the poorest countries for the consequences of climate change. Switzerland played an important role in this.

The aid organization Swissaid described the fund as ‘historic’. Alliance Sud wrote about a great success for climate justice that was unthinkable until recently.

The environmental protection organization WWF also stated that the adopted climate damage fund is a glimmer of hope at an otherwise disappointing UN climate conference. Words must now be followed by deeds. The set-up of the climate damage fund is too vague.

It is not yet clear which countries will contribute, how the money will be distributed and who will manage the fund. According to Perrez, it’s now a matter of working out the details.

The final statement asked states to improve their largely inadequate climate protection plans by the next climate conference in the United Arab Emirates in late 2023. However, this is done on a voluntary basis.

Countries with the largest greenhouse gas emissions are not explicitly obliged to meet their contribution to the 1.5 degree target agreed in Paris in 2015. The Bafu announced on Sunday that Switzerland will make efforts to ensure that these countries also make their contribution.

For Greenpeace, Swiss climate policy is too focused on the outside world. Domestic climate protection should no longer be “duly calculated with offsets in other countries”.

The international “Climate Change Performance Index” shows that Switzerland still has some catching up to do. In the current climate classification published last Monday, Switzerland lost seven places, finishing only 22nd behind Lithuania and Egypt.

(SDA)