New emissions cuts not part of historic UN climate deal
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt — For the first time, the nations of the world decided to help pay for the damage an overheating world is inflicting on poor countries, but they finished marathon climate talks on Sunday without further addressing the root cause of those disasters — the burning of fossil fuels.
The deal, reached around dawn, established a fund for what negotiators call loss and damage.
It was a big win for poorer nations that have long called for money because they are often victims of climate-worsened floods, droughts, heat waves, famines and storms despite having contributed little to the pollution that heats up the globe.
It has also long been called an issue of equity for nations hit by weather extremes and small island states that face an existential threat from rising seas.
“Three long decades and we have finally delivered climate justice,” said Seve Paeniu, the finance minister of Tuvalu. “We have finally responded to the call of hundreds of millions of people across the world to help them address loss and damage.”
Antigua and Barbuda’s Molwyn Joseph, who chairs the organization of small island states, described the agreement as a “win for our entire world.”
Early Sunday, delegates approved the compensation fund but had not dealt with the contentious issues of an overall temperature goal, emissions cutting and the desire to target all fossil fuels to be phased down. The European Union and other nations fought back what they considered backsliding in the Egyptian presidency’s overarching cover
agreement and threatened to scuttle the rest of the process.
The package was revised again, removing most of the elements Europeans had objected to but adding none of the heightened ambition they were hoping for.
“What we have in front of us is not enough of a step forward for people and planet,” Frans Timmermans, executive vice president of the European Union, told his fellow negotiators. “It does not bring enough added efforts from major emitters to increase and accelerate their emissions cuts.
“We have all fallen short in actions to avoid and minimize loss and damage. We should have done much more.”
The agreement includes a veiled reference to the benefits of natural gas as low-emission energy, despite many nations calling for phasing down natural gas, which does contribute to climate change.
The new pact does retain language to keep alive the global goal of limiting warming to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit. The Egyptian presidency kept offering proposals that harkened back to language in the 2015 Paris accord that also
mentioned a looser goal of 3.6 degrees. The world has already warmed 2 degrees since pre-industrial times.
Next year’s talks in the United Arab Emirates will see further negotiations to work out details of the new fund and review the world’s efforts to meet the goals of the Paris accord.
According to the agreement, the fund would initially draw on contributions from developed countries and other sources such as financial institutions. While major emerging economies such as China wouldn’t automatically have to contribute, that option is on the table. This is a key demand by the European Union and the United States, who argue that China and other large polluters now classified as developing countries have the financial clout and responsibility to pay their way.
Martin Kaiser, the head of Greenpeace Germany, described the agreement on loss and damage as a “small plaster on a huge, gaping wound.”
“It’s a scandal that the Egyptian COP presidency gave petrostates such as Saudi Arabia space to torpedo effective climate protection,” he said.