Poor countries get compensation: COP27 results mixed

poor countries get compensation
COP27 results leave mixed feelings

11/20/2022 7:56 am

UN climate conference goes into first overtime and finally finds an agreement. German Foreign Minister Baerbock strikes a balance between “hope and despair”. Others view the results as significantly more negative.

Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Bierbock gave a mixed assessment of the UN climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh. At the end of the deliberations the Green politician said, “Hope and despair are close together at the result.”

Bierbock positively assessed the fact that “a breakthrough in climate justice” was achieved with the resolution of a fund to compensate for climate-related damage. The conference is thus opening “a new chapter in climate policy”. It was also anchored that “aid is focused on the most vulnerable countries”.

“We were also able to prevent going a step backwards behind the Glasgow and Paris Consensus,” the minister insisted. We have been successful in defending the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees. What is disappointing, however, is that “overdue steps to reduce and phase out fossil fuels have been stalled by blockades by some major emitters and oil-producing countries.” As a result, the world is losing “precious time on its way to 1.5 degrees”.

We owe the fact that the conference “was not a total failure in the end, despite blockades and organizational weaknesses, mainly to a progressive coalition of states on different continents,” Barbock continued.

too small

Frans Timmermans, Vice-President of the EU Commission, was also “disappointed” by the results. He added that the results in Sharm el-Sheikh “are not enough to take a step forward”. He criticized that many parties were unwilling to do more to tackle climate change. “We will never stop fighting for more,” Timmerman said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres accused the UN climate conference of missing key targets. Guterres said in Sharm el-Sheikh that it was not possible to bring about the “significant reduction in emissions” needed to stop global warming.

“Our planet is in an emergency room,” the UN Secretary General underlined the drama of the situation. “We need to make drastic reductions in emissions and the climate conference failed to address this.”