The risk is great to see a decline on the need to limit global warming to 1.5 ° C. India pushes so that COP27 undertakes to gradually reduce all fossil fuels.
by Audrey Garric (Charm El-Cheikh (Egypt), Special Envoy))
As often halfway through global climate conferences, the gap is great between climate emergency, hammered all over discourse, and the reality of advances. After a week of negotiations, COP27, which is due to end on November 18 in Charm El-Cheikh (Egypt), is no exception. Discussions have only progressed on the fringes, deplore observers; So that the ministers of the 196 countries, which arrive this week, will have to try to unlock all the sensitive subjects and overcome the strong divisions between countries of the North and South.
“There is still a lot of work if we want to get significant and tangible results from which we can be proud. We must now change speed,” said Sameh Choukri, the Minister of Egyptian Foreign Affairs and President of COP27, Monday, November 14.
The discussions are dense on the “hat decision”, the text that will bring together the main political signals of this COP. In a tense geopolitical and energy context, the risk is great to see a decline on the need to limit global warming to 1.5 ° C – the most ambitious objective of the Paris Agreement. Some emerging countries, such as China or India, or Arab countries are reluctant to repeat this mention, a backtrack denounced by the negotiation groups of the most vulnerable countries, small islands and the least developed countries. “We will be very vigilant about this issue,” also warned the French delegation.
Another issue will reside in the reference to fossil fuels, namely coal, oil and gas. Last year, at the COP26 of Glasgow, the countries were for the first time committed to reducing the use of coal – a formulation reduced at the last minute by India, China and South Africa which had removed the term “get out” from the fuel. This year, India is pushing for COP27 to gradually reduce all fossil fuels. A way to soften the pressure on the major emitters dependent on coal, which it is part with Beijing, and to remind their responsibilities of developed countries, which have revived oil and gas since the war in Ukraine.
Despite this political calculation, “this mention would be an important advance, by sending a signal that fossil fuels belong to the past”, estimates the French delegation, which expects “resistance” on the part of the Gulf countries .
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