The Egyptian hosts of the conference have accused governments convening for crucial climate negotiations of making encouraging statements in public but afterward retracting them in the privacy of the negotiating rooms.
Political declarations and commitments are made in front of the cameras, but in the negotiating rooms, it’s back to the adversarial method, according to Wael Aboulmagd, the Egyptian diplomat in charge of overseeing the negotiations at the Cop27 UN climate summit. These [publicly supportive stances] won’t be useful until they’re applied in the negotiation rooms, which hasn’t happened yet.
Countries’ public declarations of support that do not take into account the roadblocks that have emerged in the negotiations on crucial topics like climate finance, loss, and damage, and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions have frustrated Egypt.
We can’t keep moving in this antagonistic direction, Aboulmagd declared. It is impossible to keep what takes place in the negotiation rooms separate from what occurs in the public sphere. We must all demonstrate a willingness to compromise.
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Although many delegations have already arrived and states have been meeting in various combinations of person and online for months, the formal discussions in Sharm el-Sheikh begin on Sunday.
At least 120 heads of state and government will meet on Monday for two days of intensive negotiations to determine the positions that their negotiators will adopt during the ensuing two weeks of talks.
The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, is anticipated to attend after previously declining to participate. Sunak discussed the significance of the meeting on Friday. Delivering on the promise of Glasgow is more crucial than ever, he argued, as evidenced by recent events.
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More crucial because if we continue to stand by and watch as climate change wreaks havoc on our globe, we will witness more human misery like the terrible floods in Pakistan. Furthermore, failure to act now could result in our children receiving an inheritance that is even more precarious.
Due to the US midterm elections, President Joe Biden will attend, although he won’t be present for the leaders summit on the first two days. A significant involvement from him is anticipated at the halfway point of the negotiations. Since this is the first Cop to take place in Africa in six years, numerous African leaders will attend, along with the presidents of France and the European Commission, Emmanuel Macron and Ursula von der Leyen.
The absence of Vladimir Putin, Narendra Modi, and the presidents of Russia and China is anticipated.
The Ukraine conflict, as well as the global oil, food, and cost of living issues, cast a shadow on the negotiations. Few governments in wealthy nations intend to set significant new targets for reducing carbon emissions or for increasing financial assistance to developing nations dealing with the effects of the climate emergency.
The likelihood of keeping global temperatures to 1.5 C is more tenuous than ever, Sameh Shoukry, the Egyptian foreign minister who will lead the negotiations, told the Guardian in an interview.
Along with the complex issue of loss and damage, which refers to aid for the severe repercussions that vulnerable nations are increasingly encountering from extreme weather, climate financing will be a major point of dispute at the discussions.
Many nations desire that loss and damage take centre stage in the Cop27agenda, but that cannot be finalised until the discussions officially kick off on Sunday.
Showing development in climate financing, according to Aboulmagd, was crucial. To assist them in reducing emissions and preparing for the effects of extreme weather, developing nations have been promised $100 billion annually starting in 2020. However, this commitment has not yet been fulfilled.
According to Aboulmagd, the $100 billion will not even come close to covering a small portion of the required funds, which are in the billions. However, it is a highly significant symbolic act that fosters confidence and trust.
He said that fossil fuel firms would only be permitted to participate in significant debates at Cop27 if they could show that they were taking the initiative to decarbonize. As Egypt is an authoritarian state that represses protest, civil society members were worried that their activities would be limited in the run-up to the discussions.
A public protest would be allowed in Sharm el-Sheikh, according to Aboulmagd, but participants would need to sign up and be approved before marching.
