Berlin There is not much time left to agree on controversial points. This Monday, the second and decisive week of negotiations begins at the world climate conference in Egypt.
By Friday, if possible, the almost 200 participating countries should have a declaration underpinning the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement with concrete steps. At that time, the world community had agreed to limit global warming to below two degrees or better 1.5 degrees compared to pre-industrial times. So far, however, the countries are on course for a 2.5 degree warmer world.
So the question for negotiators is how to close the gap between what states have pledged to date and what would be necessary to comply with the Paris Agreement. The second key issue is financial compensation for the damage that has already occurred worldwide and that is to be expected in the future as a result of the climate crisis.
“The people most affected by the climate crisis, who contribute the least to global warming, are rightly demanding and demanding reliable support from the rich super-emitters to combat their existential situation,” said Martin Kaiser, Executive Director of Greenpeace Germany, on Sunday.
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It is therefore necessary for the international community to agree by the end of COP27 “to provide its own well-stocked pot of money, from which it can compensate for future damage and losses caused, for example, by storms or floods”.
Launch of the global protective shield
But whether there will be a breakthrough is uncertain. Federal Development Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD) will officially initiate a global protective shield against climate risks this Monday together with ministers from the group of particularly vulnerable countries, the so-called V20. However, it will only be part of the answer to the problem of climate damage and losses, which is being discussed for the first time at this world climate conference as a central strand of negotiations.
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Together with the V20, who are particularly affected by climate change but emit only five percent of greenhouse gases, the G7 are building a global protective shield against climate risks.
The aim is to ensure funding that can be disbursed immediately to prevent people and countries having to wait too long for support after extreme weather events such as drought, hurricanes or floods. The protective shield is intended to accelerate economic recovery and prevent the risk of slipping into poverty.
Germany is providing 170 million euros as start-up financing. It is unclear which other countries are participating with how much money.
Svenja Schulze, here in Egypt, wants to initiate a global protective shield against climate risks together with ministers from the group of particularly vulnerable countries.
(Photo: dpa)
The group of V20 now includes 58 countries in Africa, Asia, the Pacific and Latin America. The G7 have selected several pilot countries, including Bangladesh, Ghana, Senegal, Costa Rica, the Philippines, Fiji and Pakistan. The first protection packages are to be prepared in these countries before the end of 2022.
Struggle for “Loss and Damage”
Many developing countries and low-lying island states that have contributed little to global warming are also calling for a so-called “Loss and Damage Finance Facility”, an international fund that would compensate them for the losses and damage caused by climate change. The debate about payments from rich industrialized countries has hardly progressed for years. Germany, too, has never accepted any commitments in the past.
It will be difficult to achieve an ambitious result at the conference, said Green politician Annalena Baerbock.
(Photo: AP)
The problem: Many decision-makers fear a wave of lawsuits from particularly affected countries and consider the topic to be a bottomless pit anyway. In fact, the cost of weather disasters is likely to skyrocket in the future. The discussions have therefore been hardened for years.
But it is hard to imagine that the developing countries will allow themselves to be put off any longer, especially since the industrialized countries have already broken their promise to support the developing countries in climate protection and adaptation with 100 billion US dollars a year from 2020. In 2020, the aid amounted to around 80 billion US dollars. “That created a lot of distrust and frustration,” said the head of the United Nations Development Agency, Achim Steiner, recently to the Handelsblatt.
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Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who will be in Sharm el-Sheikh from Wednesday, announced solidarity with the affected countries. Germany “is ready to do this, both in climate finance and in dealing with damage and losses,” said the Green politician at the start of the conference a week ago.
But the hurdles are high, also because of the global political situation: “It has never been so difficult to achieve an ambitious result at a world climate conference,” said Baerbock on Friday in the Bundestag. The climate conference has never taken place under such difficult geopolitical circumstances.
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