The European Union, “disappointed” by the climate agreement at COP27 in Egypt

European Commission (EC) Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans ‘disappointed’ for not adopting “strong language”. on the theme of mitigation (reduction of polluting emissions) in the final text of the COP27 climate summit which ended this morning.

“To tackle climate change, all financial flows need to support the low-carbon transition: the EU came here to have a strong language and we are disappointed that we did not succeed,” said the head of the community of Verdi Pact in his final plenary speech.

The Sharm el Sheikh Implementation Plan approved this Sunday urges countries to do so phase out coal-fired electricity generation -in plants that do not have carbon capture technologies- and to gradually abandon inefficient subsidies for fossil fuels, a request that was already reflected in the Glasgow text (COP26).

At the closing ceremony, Timmermans was keen to clarify that this plan “not a step forward enough for people and the planet.

“It doesn’t involve enough additional efforts by major emitters to scale up and accelerate their emissions cuts, it doesn’t create a greater degree of confidence that we will meet the commitments we made in the Paris Agreement and in Glasgow last year,” he said.

Waste of time

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Timmermans complained that “a lot of speed was lost from Glasgow”.

“We have already lost a lot of time. And our people and our planet have no more time to waste: we are committed to picking up speed, as of now and here. And to regain the momentum we had in Glasgow,” he said.

For this reason, the EU “has reluctantly accepted the proposals that are now on the table”.

“We had to give up some of the things we wanted, to help other parties and this process move forward. And we can live with that. In fact, we are proud of our contribution to this fund, which will serve people most in need”, alluding to the proposal from the ‘EU for losses and damages.

Indeed, this is the main result that came out of Sharm el Sheikh: a fund to finance losses and damages in developing countries “especially vulnerable” to the effects of climate change, a historic claim by these nations threatened by global warming to which they have barely contributed.

The proposal, which still has many details to outline, supports the “mosaic solution” requested by the EU negotiating block, together with other countries, which has called for the use of new financial instruments, including private ones, to help compensate for damages after events extremes related to the climate crisis, as well as the creation of a new fund under the UNFCCC.

The temperature problem

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The biggest problem with this agreement has been the update of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to meet the Paris Agreement’s global warming limiting goal.

In Paris (2015) it was established that the maximum temperature rise was between 2°C and 1.5°C but after alarming scientific reports, the international community is talking about limiting it to no more than 1.5°C and annually reviewing the targets to reach this figure.

Saudi Arabia, while keeping a very low profile at the COP, has emerged as one of the main countries that blocked this advance requested by the EU, and ended up getting this issue removed from the energy side of the deal.

Timmermans insisted that “the EU has been trying to fill these gaps” and has shown its ambition to phase out fossil fuels, something “more than 80 countries” support.

“Unfortunately, we don’t see it reflected here”he pointed.

The European official stressed that the agreed document, while “not blocking” the path towards 1.5°C, “puts up unnecessary barriers and allows the parties to shirk their responsibilities”.

And it is that, according to the community manager, there are “many parts, too many parts, who are not willing to make progress today in the fight against the climate crisis”, and who are “afraid of the transition that is coming” ; mainly due to the world crisis after the invasion of Ukraine, which could lead to a global recession.

“They ask the ‘how’, not the ‘why’. I understand these concerns. Many Europeans share them. But I want to ask everyone to find the courage to overcome that fear. And I reach out my hand to help you.”

Source: EFE

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