A climate activist holds a placard during a protest demanding climate justice and human rights at the Sharm El-Sheikh International Convention Centre, during the COP27 climate summit, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Picture: Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters
As the first week of the 27th UN Climate Change Conference of the parties came to pass, we’ve witnessed a large number of issues remaining unresolved and likely to be passed on to minister consultations next week.
“It’s not encouraging that parties are unable to find common ground on so many things through regular sessions. The presidency’s consultations on the so-called cover texts are starting on Saturday, 12 November,” commented the World Wildlife Fund.
There were heated disagreements on the core text concerning the framework and indicators of the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) with developed nations parties, such as the EU and US, saying that it is premature to engage in a framework without the work programme on the GGA concluded, and suggesting to focus the decision on 2023 work.
In general, developing country parties requested to limit the discussion to the framework and leave metrics and indicators for 2023. This impasse will further prolong negotiations on the GGA well into 2023 and possibly into 2024.
On the critical issue of Loss and Damage finance, key developed countries spoke up unexpectedly on November 11, wanting a heavy process with lots of governance, ministerial, and decisions at every COP.
The G77 (Group of 77 countries) and China called for the loss and damage finance facility under the UNFCCC financial mechanism. Pakistan called for the operationalisation of the fund as soon as next year.
Discussions regarding gender and climate change were also higher on the agenda than previous COP’s with parties being in general agreement on most of the elements of the gender and climate change text except paragraph 12 which speaks on finance, where most of the negotiations focus.
The finance issue is about strengthening the gender responsiveness of climate finance with a view to enhancing the capacity of women and furthering work under the gender action plan in order to enhance access to climate finance for women. But there is a lack of agreement on who should be mentioned both as donors and as the recipient.
At the Koronivia Joint Work on agriculture (KJWA), a promising text about the future of KJWA was produced, which included paragraph 14a, on widening the scope to “all of the food systems”. Unfortunately, negotiators could not agree on the mandate at a meeting on November 11.
Current Affairs