Key events
Final text for Santiago Network – to provide technical help for those facing loss and damage – has also finally been published. (This was agreed 2 days ago)
? Advisory board established
? Board will have Indigenous, women, youth members
? Secretariat location to be decided pic.twitter.com/BrTTbH8u96— Josh Gabbatiss (@Josh_Gabbatiss) November 18, 2022
Adam Morton
The low-lying Pacific island of Tuvalu has been reaction to the EU’s proposal on loss and damage. Their finance minister, Seve Paeniu, called for support for phasing out all fossil fuels, language so far missing from the draft Sharm el-Sheikh agreement.
He described the EU position on loss and damage as a “breakthrough”.
“They are now agreeing to setting up a response fund. To me, that is a major concession and major breakthrough,” he said. “It is our hope that will be ending up in the text of the conference decision.”
He said there would then be 12 months before the next Cop “to do all the work” on designing the fund. He also welcomed an EU push for a recognition that global emissions need to peak by 2025, rather than 2030, and that greater action was needed to cut methane. But he said that were not enough to accelerate ambition towards limiting heating to 1.5C.
Paeniu said language in a draft agreement for the conference needed to be strengthened to say there should be a ban on all new fossil fuel extraction and production, including oil and gas, not just a phase down of unabated coal power. “That needs to be in the conference decision by the end of today.”
Patrick Greenfield
If you are confused about what is going on at Cop27 this morning, we need to go back to 1992 when the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was established. The Soviet Union had just been dissolved, the world’s human population was about 5.5 billion, and countries such as China and South Korea were still industrialising.
Much has changed in 30 years. Some former eastern bloc countries are part of the EU and as such, have become donor nations in the UNFCCC process. The UAE, Brazil, South Korea, China, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are much wealthier and have emitted enormous amounts of greenhouse gases.
Many wealthy donor countries feel that countries whose economies have grown significantly since 1992, especially China, should contribute to any loss and damage fund for vulnerable countries. There will be a big tussle on this issue in the coming hours and days in Egypt between negotiators.
Here is the latest from Carbon Brief’s senior policy editor Simon Evans on how close we are to agreement.
China, Saudi Arabia and Qatar should contribute to loss and damage – Canada
Patrick Greenfield
I grabbed a word with Canada’s environment minister, Steven Guilbeault, at its Cop27 pavilion this morning. He said Canada was supportive of the EU’s proposal on loss and damage, but countries such as China, Saudi Arabia and Qatar should contribute to the fund given their historical emissions and wealth.
He told the Guardian: “We are not opposed to the idea of creating a new fund. There’s already a lot of funding out there … The G77 seems to really, really want a new fund. I think what the EU proposal does is to say: ‘if we were to create a new fund, we are going to need certain conditions: we need to see real ambition on mitigation in the text’. We agree with that and we are not seeing that right now.
“We need to have a serious conversation about expanding the donor base. We recognise our responsibility but we are less and less large emitters compared to others. It’s in the interest of vulnerable countries to have more donors … China should definitely be there. I think there are a number of oil-producing nations in the Gulf region that should be part of that. I haven’t looked at the UAE’s figures but Qatar and Saudi Arabia, yes,” he said.
Loss and damage has been the main issue and sticking point at these talks, but what exactly does it mean? My colleague Nina Lakhani’s explainer should answer your questions:
Megan Darby, editor of ClimateHome, is also going through the new text (which dropped, she says, a couple of hours after they’d sent out the newsletter).
She points out that the demand for fossil fuel phase-down which many people wanted still has not made the cut. But also adds:
Provocative basic language on “deep regret” that developed countries are so rubbish has gone.
The latest draft text has also been published and is being combed through by everyone.
Sébastien Duyck, a senior Attorney working at #COP27, thinks there are four main areas of concern:
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the deletion of references to human right to a clean environment;
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no reference to phasing out of oil & gas;
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references to “low emission energy systems” & “clean power generation” opening door for continued promotion of #FossilFuels instead of shift to #RenewableEnergy
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and no reference to the crucial biodiversity COP-15 upcoming next month and the need for a strong outcome
Mikael Karlsson has tweeted the EU proposal here.
Good morning, and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the Cop27 climate talks.
Today is theoretically the final day of the conference, but these events usually overrun and most people expect it to last into Saturday and possibly even Sunday.
However, a major step forward came overnight as the European Union agreed to support the creation of a fund for loss and damage finance – that is, money provided by rich countries to help poorer countries adapt to and recover from the devastating effects of the climate crisis.
My colleagues Fiona Harvey and Adam Morton have the full story here:
Patrick Greenfield will be here shortly, and you can reach him at patrick.greenfield@theguardian.com or on Twitter at @pgreenfielduk.
