COP27: UN chief urges parties to “stand and deliver” as no consensus built on finance and mitigation plans

Sharm El-Sheikh: As the COP27 is scheduled to wrap up in 24 hours and “there is clearly a breakdown in trust between North and South” on several significant issues including ‘loss and damage and mitigation plans.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged the parties to rise to the “urgency” of the moment and agree on real solutions to solve the greatest challenge facing humanity.

“There is clearly a breakdown in trust between North and South, and between developed and emerging economies. This is no time for finger-pointing. The blame game is a recipe for mutually assured destruction,” António Guterres said at the Sharm el-Sheikh International Conference Centre.

The UN chief urged countries to deliver the kind of meaningful action that people, and the planet, so desperately need.

“The world is watching and has a simple message: stand and deliver,” he underscored.

Wealthy nations, including the United States, have opposed creating a new loss and damage fund to support developing countries ravaged by climate change for fear it could expose them to limitless liability for their historic contribution to greenhouse gas emissions.

The UN Secretary-General also asked for the delivery of the $100 billion annually in climate finance promised at COP15 in Copenhagen.

He asked the Parties to act in consensus to double their investments in adaptation and reform multilateral development banks and international financial institutions.

“They must provide the support developing countries need to embark on a renewable energy and climate-resilient pathway”, he highlighted.
Finally, Mr. Guterres reminded negotiators that the “climate clock is ticking” and that they have a chance to make a difference, so they must act quickly.

“We have agreed solutions in front of us – to respond to loss and damage, to close the emissions gap, and to deliver on finance”, he concluded.

Thursday was officially ‘Solutions Day’ at COP27.

On the day a draft of the final decision, or cover text, was published by the COP27 Presidency. However, NGO experts said that the 20-page document is still just a list of options that must be edited down.

The draft addresses the 1.5 target and refers to science, reiterates the Glasgow Climate Pact call to phase down coal but does not mention oil and gas.

It also references the doubling of adaptation finance and welcomes the agenda item on loss and damage, but it doesn’t call for the establishment of a new financial facility.

On Thursday, hundreds of civil society representatives took over the COP27 plenary to demand climate justice, touching on the very action points the Secretary-General mentioned later at his press encounter.

After meeting at the plenary, all attendants walked out and did a short march at the outdoor area of the Sharm el-Sheikh International Convention Centre that ended with a sit-in, at which they read the COP27 People’s Declaration for Climate Justice.

The document endorsed by the dozens of organizations present, calls for a “system change” to ensure and enable just transitions to 100 per cent peoples-owned decentralised renewable energy systems, the repayment of climate debt by reducing emissions to real zero by 2030 and addressing loss and damage, the phase-out of fossil fuels, and to ensure a safe and enabling environment for civil society.