Britain Suggests Climate Finance Scheme As COP26 Enters Overtime

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GLASGOW – Negotiators took the two-week UN climate talks in Scotland to an extra day on Saturday, wrestling with a new draft of an agreement aimed at giving the world a realistic chance to avoid the worst effects of global warming.

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Alok Sharma, the chairman of the British conference, said he expected a COP26 among the nearly 200 countries present, ranging from superpowers fueled by coal and gas to oil producers and Pacific islands that will be swallowed up by rising sea levels.

Like previous versions, the latest draft attempted to balance the demands of climate-vulnerable nations, major industrial powers, and those whose consumption or export of fossil fuels are vital to their economic development.

Britain tried to unblock one of the thorniest problems by proposing mechanisms to ensure that poorer nations eventually get more financial aid than they were promised to prepare for and handle the increasingly prevalent extreme weather.

China, the current largest emitter of greenhouse gases responsible for man-made global warming, and Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, were seeking to avoid the final deal, including language opposing fuel subsidies. fossils, two sources told Reuters on Friday.

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However, on Saturday draft , published by the United Nations, went on to highlight fossil fuels, something that no conclusion from the UN climate conference has yet achieved.

He also urged rich countries to double funding for climate adaptation by 2025 from 2019 levels, offering funding that has been a key demand from small island nations at the conference.

‘KEEP 1.5 ALIVE’

Developing countries want to make sure that rich nations, whose historic emissions are largely responsible for global warming, pay more to help them adapt to its consequences.

Funds for adaptation go primarily to the poorest countries and currently represent only a small fraction of climate finance.

Britain also said a UN committee should report next year on progress towards delivering the $ 100 billion in comprehensive annual climate funds that wealthy nations had pledged for 2020 but failed to deliver, and that governments should meet. in 2022, 2024 and 2026 to discuss climate finance.

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The overall goal of the meeting is to maintain the 2015 Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Scientists say that going beyond that limit would trigger extreme sea level rise and catastrophes including devastating droughts, monster storms and wildfires far worse than the ones the world is already experiencing.

But national emission reduction pledges made so far would limit the average global temperature rise to just 2.4 degrees Celsius. While there is little chance that gap will close in Glasgow, Sharma said he hoped the final deal would pave the way for deeper cuts.

Liberian Nellie Dokie, 37, who lives in Glasgow and has been making a two-hour commute to cook for conference delegates, ventured her first look at the main conference area on Saturday before the delegates began. a balancing session at noon.

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“I want to be a part of history,” he said. “I played a small role.”

‘ WAIT AND SEE’

US climate envoy John Kerry also gave a positive note when asked Friday night if he agreed with climate activist Greta Thunberg that COP26 was a ‘festival for’ business as usual. ‘”.

“Obviously I don’t agree,” he replied, “and I think you’ll see that when you see what happens.”

Kerry helped rekindle hopes for the conference when he and Chinese negotiator Xie Zhenhua announced Thursday that countries would boost efforts to preserve forests, need to absorb and retain carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and reduce production of the second largest. amount. important greenhouse gas, methane.

The White House said Friday that US President Joe Biden, who managed to push $ 555 billion in climate action through Congress in a post-pandemic recovery program, will hold a virtual meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Monday for the night, United States time.

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The most recent draft of what many hope is the final Glasgow accord retained a significant demand for nations to make stricter climate commitments next year, rather than every five years, as they are currently required to do.

The European Union and Italy were crafting a proposal to use the special drawing rights provided by the International Monetary Fund to help ensure the goal of $ 100 billion in climate finance is met next year, an EU official said.

But $ 100 billion a year is well below the real needs of the poorest countries, which could reach $ 300 billion a year by 2030 alone in adaptation costs, according to the United Nations, in addition to economic losses from poor harvests or weather-related disasters.