After almost 2 weeks in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, leading the European Union’s negotiating team at the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27), the European Commission’s Executive Vice-President responsible for the Green Deal, Frans Timmermans, had some particularly harsh words to say about the text agreed upon by the 196 countries present.
The text, entitled ‘the Sharm el-Sheikh Implementation Plan’, is not ambitious enough in Mr Timmermans’ view, despite the negotiations being extended over the weekend.
“What we have in front of us is not enough of a step forward for people and planet”, he said in his speech on Sunday 20 November at the closing plenary session of COP27.
Lack of progress on mitigation
The Vice-President particularly regretted the lack of progress on the ‘mitigation of global warming’ aspect compared to the previous COP in Glasgow, when the world is said to be on track for a warming of 2.8°C by the end of the century, according to a recent UN report (see EUROPE 13053/5).
According to Mr Timmermans, the agreement reached in Sharm el-Sheikh “does not bring enough added efforts from major emitters to increase and accelerate their emissions cuts”, nor “a higher degree of confidence that we will achieve the commitments made under the Paris Agreement and in Glasgow last year”.
Without naming them, he criticised the many parties who “are not ready to make more progress today in the fight against the climate crisis”, singling out attempts by some “to go back on what we agreed in Glasgow”.
The Vice-President had also hoped to see more commitments on funding the fight against climate change. “All financial flows need to support the low carbon transition. The European Union came here to get strong language agreed and we are disappointed we didn’t achieve this”, he lamented.
Addressing the different delegations, he then added: “I urge you all to acknowledge, when you walk out of this room, that we have all fallen short in actions to avoid and minimise loss and damage. We should have done much more”.
The 1.5 degree target is maintained in the text
The Vice-President’s disappointment was shared by the head of the European Parliament delegation, Bas Eickhout (Greens/EFA, Dutch).
Calling 2022 a “lost year” for climate action, he said COP27 had failed to bring the world closer to the goal of keeping average global warming below 1.5°C by 2100.
Although this objective was questioned by some countries during the negotiations, it does ultimately appear in the final text, in the ‘science’ section.
No progress on fossil fuels
For MEP Bas Eickhout (Greens/EFA, Dutch), COP27 was “a missed opportunity to substantially tackle the root of the problem, massively reduce emissions and end the age of fossil fuels”.
On the issue of fossil fuels, the parties did not achieve any progress, as the agreement retains the text agreed at COP26. It calls for coal to be phased out and for an end to “inefficient fossil fuel subsidies”.
According to Laurence Tubiana, one of the architects of the Paris Agreement, the Egyptian presidency “produced a text that clearly protects petro-states and fossil fuel industries”.
Establishment of a fund for loss and damage
Like many observers, Mr Eickhout welcomed the agreement to set up a fund for loss and damage, i.e. damage caused by climate disruption that cannot be avoided either by action to reduce emissions or by adaptation to climate change.
The creation of this fund, long called for by many countries, particularly in the South, is a historic decision.
However, the modalities of this new instrument, which is to be launched by COP28, remain to be defined, such as the governance of the fund, the beneficiaries and the contributing countries.
“It is still unclear which countries will be paying into the fund and which ones will be eligible for support. We will have to make sure that support reaches the most vulnerable and hardest hit by climate change”, said Mr Eickhout.
A transitional committee has been established to work out the details of the implementation of the fund.
See the Sharm el-Sheikh Implementation Plan: https://aeur.eu/f/45u (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)