Cop-27 talks extended in bid to reach breakthrough

Environment Minister Eamon Ryan has conceded consensus remained a long way off.

The UN climate change Cop-27 summit is to be extended after intense negotiations failed to reach a deal on compensating vulnerable countries for extreme weather events.

Like previous Cop events, the two-week summit in Egypt's Sharm-el-Sheikh ran into overtime, as hopes of a last-minute breakthrough before the scheduled end ran out.

Loss and damage — ostensibly richer countries paying a significant share to more vulnerable countries to compensate for the climate change-related disasters already occurring and which cannot be avoided even with defences — remained the major sticking point.

It is not unusual for Cop events to go beyond their deadline. Just six of the previous 26 have finished on schedule.

'There is a lot of work to be done'

Environment Minister Eamon Ryan, who was appointed EU ministerial representative on so-called "loss and damage" to work alongside European Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans earlier in the week, had conceded early on Friday that consensus remained a long way off.

"There is a lot of work to be done. There is no certainty as to what the response will be," he said, after the EU offered what it said was a compromise to richer and more vulnerable nations.

The EU's proposal to break the deadlock honed in on funding "the most vulnerable countries". 

However, developing countries want the agreement to extend beyond just the most vulnerable, while countries like the US fear being held legally liable in the future for loss and damage.

There is also debate over the wording around the future of fossil fuels.

The top seven emitters — China, the EU, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Russia, and the US — plus international transport, accounted for 55% of global emissions in 2020. Collectively, G20 members — 19 of the world's biggest economies plus the EU bloc — are responsible for 75%, according to UN data.

Greenhouse gas emissions are a major contributor to human-induced global warming, which has led to the proliferation of extreme weather disasters in recent years.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, chairing the COP27 talks, said he expected talks to extend over the weekend.

“I remain concerned at the number of outstanding issues,” he told delegates late on Friday evening.

Fear of failure

Irish observers on the ground said negotiators, including Irish delegates, needed to push hard in the final hours.

Energy officer with Friends of the Earth, Clare O’Connor, said: "If Cop27 fails to explicitly call on countries to phase-out production of fossil fuels, it will be a colossal political failure and a win for an industry that is killing between three and five million people annually from air pollution."

Christian Aid Ireland policy officer Ross Fitzpatrick said: “If this Cop is to deliver on climate justice, then it must deliver meaningful progress on loss and damage. Rather than trying to obstruct progress or drive down ambition by seeking to cherry-pick elements of proposals that they find acceptable, wealthy countries should listen to the vast majority of countries in the world."