The final result of key UN climate talks held on crunch negotiations over backsliding on world warming targets on Saturday, after the EU made a dramatic risk to stroll away from the fraught COP27 summit.
National negotiators stated that progress was being remodeled the beforehand deadlocked challenge of “loss and damage” funding by wealthy international locations for poorer nations struggling the results of climate change.
But Jennifer Morgan, German climate minister, stated a deal would solely be permitted if it included measures that will “keep 1.5 alive” — a phrase that grew to become the mantra of final yr’s COP26 talks in Glasgow.
It refers to a objective in the 2015 Paris Agreement to maintain world warming nicely under 2C from pre-industrial occasions, and ideally 1.5C, by reducing greenhouse fuel emissions.
A bunch of nations generally known as the “high ambition coalition”, which incorporates the UK, Germany and Spain, stated on Saturday night that each the temperature objectives and the loss and injury funding wanted to be mirrored in the last COP27 settlement.
“One without the other doesn’t make sense, otherwise we would be accepting catastrophe and not pushing forward to avoiding the worst of climate change,” stated Maisa Rojas, Chile’s minister of the atmosphere.
The summit was on account of finish on Friday however prolonged into the weekend as negotiators remained in disagreement about key points.
“We do not want 1.5C to die here today,” stated EU climate chief Frans Timmermans, on Saturday, as he issued an ultimatum.
“Everything is on the table, these are high stakes, capitals are being called,” stated one European diplomat.
The query of how international locations would step up their cuts in emissions remained at stake on Saturday, fuelling some negotiators’ issues that the 1.5C target is likely to be in jeopardy.
“We’d rather have no decision than a bad decision,” Timmermans informed reporters at Sharm el-Sheikh.
“All ministers . . . like myself are prepared to walk away if we do not have a result that does justice to what the world is waiting for, namely that we do something about this climate crisis,” he stated.
China, Brazil and Saudi Arabia have been amongst the international locations resisting elevated motion on reducing emissions, in line with folks with information of the discussions.
While climate COPs are all the time fractious and barely finish on time, it’s uncommon for a big group of western international locations corresponding to the EU to make a last-minute risk of a walkout.
“No one should underestimate” the EU’s risk to stroll out, stated Romina Pourmokhtari, Sweden’s minister for climate and the atmosphere. “There is no one here who is willing to return to our countries and explain to them why we took a step back.”
The bloc has careworn the significance of constructing on final yr’s Glasgow Climate Pact, which included a dedication to scale back the use of coal, the dirtiest fossil gasoline.
COP27 president Sameh Shoukry, Egypt’s international minister, stated on Saturday that the draft textual content of the last settlement would hold the 1.5C objective alive whereas taking a “holistic approach in dealing with the challenges of climate change”.
Shoukry stated there was “equal dissatisfaction in all quarters” however insisted the “vast majority” of events would discover a foundation for an settlement.
“There is never a perfect solution but there is an effort that I have exerted to provide the basis that we can move forward upon,” Shoukry stated. “Reaching a point of convergence takes some effort.”
There have been additionally issues about how the Egyptian presidency was dealing with the summit. “I’ve never experienced anything like this: untransparent, unpredictable and chaotic,” stated one delegate.
Countries’ negotiating groups have been solely given a short while to assessment up to date texts for a number of key excellent points in the early hours of the morning; this was “not a usual procedure,” stated one EU official.
Additional reporting by Pilita Clark and Emiliya Mychasuk in Sharm el-Sheikh
Climate Capital
Where climate change meets enterprise, markets and politics. Explore the FT’s coverage here.
Are you interested in the FT’s environmental sustainability commitments? Find out more about our science-based targets here
