UK suggests climate finance plan as negotiators race against the clock

By Kate Abnett, Elizabeth Piper and Valerie Volkovic

Glasgow, Nov 13 (Reuters) – Negotiators continued UN climate talks in Scotland on Saturday, after a two-week-long dispute, to try to reach an agreement that would help the world avoid the worst effects of global warming. Will give a real chance.

British conference president Alok Sharma said he expects COP26 https://www.reuters.com/business/cop to close on Saturday afternoon with an agreement between around 200 countries, ranging from coal and gas to oil. including superpowers. Growers and Pacific islands are threatened by rising sea levels.

A new draft agreement was unveiled on Saturday that, like previous versions, seeks to balance the demands of vulnerable countries, major industrial powers and those whose consumption or export of fossil fuels is critical to their economic growth.

Britain attempted to unblock one of the toughest issues by proposing mechanisms to ensure that ultimately poorer countries receive the most financial aid they need to prepare for and manage the increasingly prevalent extreme weather. promised to do.

China, the top emitter of greenhouse gases, and Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, were among a group of countries that sought to block the final deal from including language that opposes fossil fuel subsidies, a measure of global warming. The main reason, two sources told Reuters on Friday.

However, the new draft released by the United Nations continues to target fossil fuels, something that no UN climate convention has managed to do so far.

He urged rich countries to double funding for adaptation to climate goals by 2025 from 2019 levels, which has been a key demand of the small island nations at the conference.

Survive the 1.5 degree target

The overall goal of the meeting is to reach the 2015 Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C (2.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.

Scientists say exceeding that limit would lead to extreme sea-level rise and weather-related catastrophes, such as droughts, monster storms, and wildfires far worse than the world has ever imagined.

But national emissions reduction commitments made so far will limit average global temperature rise to just 2.4 degrees. While there is little chance that the gap will be closed in Glasgow, Sharma said he hopes the final COP26 deal will pave the way for deeper cuts.

Climate change adaptation funding goes mainly to the poorest countries and currently represents only a small portion of the funding of the problem.

Britain said a UN committee should next year report on progress on the $100 billion in climate finance that rich countries promised by 2020 but failed to deliver, and called on governments to discuss climate finance. should meet in 2022, 2024 and 2026.

wait and see

US climate envoy John Kerry made a positive comment late Friday when asked whether he agreed with activist Greta Thunberg that COP26 was “a festival as usual”.

“Obviously I don’t agree,” he replied, “and I think they’ll find out when they see what happens.”

Kerry helped rekindle hopes for the conference when, along with Chinese negotiator Xi Zhenhua, he announced Thursday that countries would redouble their efforts to preserve forests, which absorb and retain carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Required for, and to reduce carbon dioxide. The second most important greenhouse gas, methane.

The agreement between the United States and China requires the two countries to address mutual tensions over other political differences.

US President Joe Biden, who has managed to get Congress to pass $555,000 million in climate measures in a post-pandemic recovery program, will hold a virtual meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Monday night, the White House said on Friday. Time.

The latest draft of many hope for a final Glasgow accord also places a major demand for nations to make stricter climate commitments next year instead of every five years, as is currently required.

(Additional information from William James, Simon Jessop, Valerie Volcovici, Richard Waldmanis and Jake Spring; Writing by Kevin Liffey, Editing by Katie Daigle and Francis Carey, Editing in Spanish by Gabriela Donoso)