- A Disgrace to the Planet

Enthusiasm for agreement: Esban Barth Ede, Minister of Climate and Environment in Egypt. Photo: Martin Lerberg Fossum

Climate summit COP27 in Egypt reaches agreement on final declaration. Reactions were mixed.

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At 5 o’clock the agreement was declared ready. Its contents are currently unknown.

Consensus is coming Almost two days extra time in Egypt.

Last night, countries agreed to create a fund for loss and damage. The fund will compensate poor countries for damages caused by climate change.

– The wording around emissions reduction could have been better, where we changed the wording. “We are very satisfied, it’s not historic, but it’s not bad,” Climate and Environment Minister Espan Barth told AidVG.

– We are very satisfied with the fund for damage loss.

Climate conditions: Eide meets China’s climate ambassador Xie Zhenhua. Photo: Maria Varderiason, Ministry of Climate and Environment

The term “loss and damage” is used for weather damage that cannot be modified or avoided. A case in point is sea level rise that threatens the Maldives and other low-lying island states.

More than two weeks ago, during the COP-27 climate summit in the Egyptian city of Sharm el-Sheikh, nearly 200 world countries negotiated new climate measures.

The conference had to go into overtime because the countries participating in the conference were still far from an agreement.

Shared reactions

Reactions are divided about the final result.

Lawrence Dubiana was one of the architects behind the Paris Agreement. He says the summit was not in vainand refers to funds created to help vulnerable countries.

Australian retailer Kristen Tilley was among the least satisfied:

– We are deeply disappointed that someone has tried to curb ambition around climate emissions.

EU climate chief Franz Timmermans says the talks eventually stalled after several attempts to roll back what was agreed in Glasgow (the previous climate summit).

– We should have done more.

LONG NIGHT: Germany’s delegation slept little during the night’s final talks. Photo: MOHAMED ABD EL GHANY / Reuters

WWF World Wide Fund for Nature believes world leaders are not doing enough to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees.

– The result is a shame for the planet and vulnerable countries, writes Secretary-General Caroline Andar in a press release.

Bellona, an environmental organization, believes that a climate agreement has been reached in Sharm el-Sheikh is encouraging, but says there are many formulations that are poor and unclear:

– The most important development in the climate negotiations is the text on compensation for loss and damage. This is a victory for poor countries. We are very disappointed that there is no real progress in emission reduction methods. Next year’s COP in Dubai will be crucial to resolving all issues and fixing the Paris Agreement’s ability to address the climate crisis.

The Nature Conservancy is disappointed by what they say is a weak formula for phasing out fossil fuels and emissions reductions. They commended the Norwegian delegation for its efforts to improve the Agreement on Loss and Damage and the Final Declaration on Fossil Fuels.

– Your proposal would have given countries a strict obligation to phase out all fossil energy, not just coal, which means a lot from a major oil and gas country. The Norwegian Union for Conservation of Nature writes in a press release that it is good that the climate negotiations are finally talking seriously about fossil fuels, but unfortunately there is not a full push for fossil fuel cuts.

But the Norwegian Nature Conservancy believes that the inclusion of fossil fuels in the final announcement is a clear signal:

– You should act at home, listen to the professional advice of the UN and the IEA, and stop looking for and developing new oil and gas deposits, says Truls Gulovsen, head of the Nature Conservation Society.

Barth Ede makes a point that it doesn’t help if individual countries end the day.

– What the Nature Conservancy should be happy about is that all Western oil producing countries want to phase out. At home, we work every day on this transformation, which is a global effort.

Information

COP27

Countries meet every year to discuss how countries should cooperate to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fight global warming. This year’s meeting will be held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

The negotiations are called “Conference of the Parties” and are therefore abbreviated as COP. This year is the 27th round, so it is called COP27.

The talks will last two weeks and conclude with a text of agreement on what was achieved. All countries must stand behind it, otherwise there is no agreement.

The Paris Agreement, adopted in 2015, is the starting point for much of what they do. Later, countries agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions needed to limit global warming to “below 2 degrees”. Preferably 1.5 degrees.

The Paris Agreement is legally binding – but each country must declare how big its emissions reductions will be.

Countries are required to register new and sharper emissions cuts every five years, and a weaker target can never be registered.

All countries enter climate negotiations with their own goals. They record what they think the final text should contain, called a “cover decision.” What is written there is very important in terms of code, but it must be followed by countries.

These topics will be prominent during this year’s Climate Summit:

Money Financing climate adaptation and emission reductions, including compensation for countries most affected by climate change.
Measures to achieve the 1.5 degree targetIt assumes that global warming will be no more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels by 2100.
Phasing out of fossil energy sources. It was a hot topic in Glasgow during the previous COP conference.

The so-called 1.5 degree target was adopted in the Paris Agreement from 2015. Scientists estimate that it will bring more than 1.5 degrees of warming. Severe consequences for human and animal life on the planet.

If global climate policy follows its current course, the world is on track to warm by 2.8 degrees by the beginning of the next century. Annual Report of the UN Environment Programme.

Climate change may already be felt in large parts of the world this summer Droughts, heat waves, floods and extreme weather have surprised many researchers.

You can read more here About what’s at stake during this year’s climate summit.

Some have tightened climate targets

A draft agreement It was also presented at the conference on Thursday, but was not accepted by the participating countries at the time.

The plan repeated words from the previous COP conference in Glasgow about phasing out coal-fired power – to say nothing of oil and gas. It has long been a contentious topic at climate summits.

During the previous conference in Glasgow, countries agreed to review their own climate targets. It was last month However, only 23 out of 193 countries submitted new and tougher targets to their climate reductions.

Three days before the start of the summit, the Norwegian government announced that they He sharpened his promise – to “at least 55 percent” from the previous target of 50-55 percent emission reduction.

NB! The Norwegian government’s stated goal is to “cooperate with the European Union”. This means, in theory, it is possible for Norway to pay other countries for climate reductions or lean on the EU without having to make cuts domestically. The government has said the aim is to take cuts domestically.