By Kate Abnett
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) -A tremendous amount of work is needed to turn a draft COP27 text into something all parties can agree on, European Union Climate Policy Chief Frans Timmermans told Reuters on Thursday.
“The cover text still needs a tremendous amount of work. We are not in a position to say that this is enough common ground that we could agree upon,” he said at the summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
“So, we will continue the discussions and will give our input and hope that we can find this common ground before the end of the COP.”
The U.N. climate body earlier published a draft document laying out what could be included in a hoped for final agreement from the summit, repeating many of the goals from last year’s U.N. talks while leaving contentious issues still to be resolved.
The summit is due to end Friday, but some participants expect it will extend into the weekend.
Countries are still at odds over the issue of “loss and damage”, or how to provide financial support for countries hit by huge economic loss and irreparable damage as a result of climate-driven disasters.
Developing and climate-vulnerable countries are demanding that countries agree at the COP27 summit to form a new fund to address these losses.
Rich countries including the European Union and United States have blocked past attempts to launch such a fund or even discuss compensation for climate-linked losses – fearing spiralling liabilities for their high-emitting economies’ role in fuelling climate change.
Timmermans said the EU was now willing to discuss a new fund, but wanted to first explore how existing financial instruments could be retooled to tackle loss and damage.
“A fund might also be a result of that. But that’s not a foregone conclusion,” Timmermans said.
(Reporting by Kate Abnett, writing by William James; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
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