SHARM EL SHEIKH/OSLO (VG/E24): The UN climate summit COP27 was due to end on Friday, but many unresolved questions and difficult contentious topics mean meetings continue. – It does not look bright, says Friedrich Hauge, director of Bellona.
Thursday morning, the UN Secretary-General returned to the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where the COP27 climate negotiations are now drawing to a close. He arrived with a disturbing and clear message:
– The twenty-seventh session of the Conference of the Parties is scheduled to end within 24 hours – and the negotiations remain divided over a number of important points, he said.
He urged merchants to move quickly, saying:
– the world follows. You must deliver.
Friday morning, when there was no closing statement yet, it was confirmed: the summit has been extended until Saturday.
– Today we will prepare again. Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, who is chairing the meeting, says time is not on our side.
Hauge: – I don’t feel like it
Bellona leader Frederick Hauge, who is following the negotiations closely, is unsure whether a final declaration will be adopted.
– That doesn’t look so bright. The script we proposed on Thursday was very messy and showed little progress. If there’s ever a final statement, they’ll likely continue at least through Sunday, he told VG Friday afternoon.
It was Thursday Draft On the main decision presented at the Sharm el-Sheikh conference. In this proposal, among others, wording about phasing out coal power – a controversial topic at the final stage of last year’s climate summit in Glasgow – was repeated.
my knowledge: This is pending during the climate negotiations
Climate and Environment Minister Espen Barth Eide expressed his immediate disappointment with the draft:
– That’s a very bad draft, all of us in the Western group think so. We cannot go forward with this. We should have a new, clearer draft which anchors the plans to stay on the 1.5-degree target, said Barth Eddy according to NRK, and that’s more positive on this important topic of loss and damage.
Expect Norway to play a leading role
One of the most central and difficult contentious issues that negotiators are also trying to resolve is what is called “loss and damage”.
It is often not the countries hardest hit by climate change that have contributed to the changes with emissions. Do the rich countries owe it to pay the losses and damages suffered by the exposed and poor countries? In this case, who will pay, who will receive the money, and which device will distribute the money?
This discussion has been postponed several times, but the states have agreed that this will be decided this year.
Norwegian Marianne Carlsen leads the climate negotiations: – It is necessary to do something
In Sharm El Sheikh, E24/VG meet Norway’s only youth delegate at the summit, Ane Aurora Skjølberg Serreli.
The youth organizations present are very happy that Norway has been very clear that the financing of losses and damages must be resolved, and they have high expectations that Norway will play a leading role in the final stage of the negotiations. She says they also hope to see Norway take the demands of the most vulnerable countries seriously.
It hopes that a “loss and damage” arrangement can be put in place.
– But what happens in the last few hours is very crucial. She concluded by saying that different groups of countries completely disagree on the best solution for the proposals on the table, but they can reach a compromise of some sort.
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