Cop27 bulletin: John Kerry has Covid

As anticipated, Cop27 has gone into extra time. Pavilions are being packed away and the venue’s meals and water provides are drying up. That is when negotiating will get intense. 

Susceptible nations are nearer than ever to attaining what many thought would by no means occur – a devoted facility for loss and injury finance.

The EU opened the door to it, placing the onus on holdout the US to dealer a cope with China. The 2 nations’ local weather envoys spent hours in a room collectively on Thursday evening and sadly, considered one of them caught Covid.

On the methane ministerial on Thursday, John Kerry stated he had a chilly however had examined unfavorable for Covid. Whitney Smith, his spokeswoman on the US State Division, stated he examined optimistic on Friday morning. Smith stated his signs have been “mild” and he had labored all day from his resort.

That’s a blow. Cop offers are nonetheless achieved in particular person, typically on the ground of the plenary corridor.

Finally yr’s closing plenary, Kerry strode from group to group making guarantees, reassurances and threats to shut the deal.

US negotiators will nonetheless do that. However having to dial in the bed-ridden boss dangers slowing issues down.

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The trillion-dollar query: who pays?

The important thing to unlocking the talks is discovering a means ahead for who pays for local weather damages in susceptible nations.

“If you can get agreement on the loss and damage funding piece, I think everything else falls into place,” stated Alden Meyer of E3G.

That’s simpler stated than achieved. The EU has opened the door to establishing a loss and injury fund this yr, with situations: China and different nations who’ve the capability to take action ought to pay and solely essentially the most susceptible nations can obtain cash. However there is no such thing as a listing for who falls into every camp.

The EU says that ought to go hand in hand with steeper emissions cuts to forestall worsening impacts. “This is our final offer,” EU’s local weather chief Frans Timmermans stated.

The place the US stands on this shall be important. A proposal got here out yesterday to agree “funding arrangements” that would come with a devoted fund, with the hope of bringing Washington on facet.

Cash would come from private and non-private sources. Insurance coverage, debt reduction and world taxes on oil and gasoline may very well be a part of the combination. The main points must be labored out with a view to operationalise it 2024. That may be an enormous transfer from the US however will it fly?

Regardless of a scarcity of enthusiasm from the Egyptian presidency, some are nonetheless attempting to get fossil fuels within the cowl textual content. Colombia is taking over the baton from India and has drafted textual content with the UK calling for a section out of all fossil fuels.

“If we don’t have mitigation commitments, there can be a fund for loss and damage but no fund will cover the catastrophic consequences of climate change,” stated Colombia’s setting minister Susana Muhamad.

We’ll discover out quickly in the event that they succeeded, with one other draft anticipated on Saturday morning.

In short…

China shouldn’t pay – All of the speak of increasing the donor base for local weather finance is aimed toward China. However an ODI evaluation discovered China nonetheless too poor and low-emitting per particular person to pay. Qatar, Singapore and Israel are extra logical targets, it discovered.

Chaos in Brussels – Luxembourg grew to become the most recent to announce it will give up the Power Constitution Treaty on Friday. The European Council did not agree a joint place on whether or not to ratify reforms at Tuesday’s convention. Reform would enable nations to cease defending fossil gas investments.

Elsewhere in Egypt – Whereas leaders have been talking at Cop27 final Tuesday, Alaa Abd el-Fattah tried to kill himself in his jail cell, his household stated. On Friday, the identical day US president Joe Biden and Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi traded jokes, he collapsed and was fed intravenously.

Brazilian propaganda – The outgoing Brazilian authorities is exhibiting a slick digital actuality movie at its pavilion at Cop27. The video claims the federal government is making efforts to convey renewable power to the Amazon and to advertise improvement whereas defending nature. It doesn’t point out deforestation.

Adaptation shortfall – The Adaptation Fund has acquired $230m in new pledges and contributions in 2022. Germany was the most important donor with close to $60m, adopted by the US with $50m. Different European nations and Japan contributed. The fund says it nonetheless has a pipeline of unfunded tasks value $380m.