Day 11: 17 November 2022
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, accompanied by COP President Sameh Shoukry, appealed to negotiators to bridge their differences as COP neared its (scheduled) close. Photo via UNFCCC/Flickr
Thursday at COP27 saw a considerable amount of work behind the scenes as the Presidency worked on drafting a cover decision, while ministers led various consultations on outstanding issues.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres jetted in from the G20 meeting in Bali to urge delegates to come together on Loss & Damage, to address the “huge emissions gap”, and to keep the 1.5 degree goal within reach.
Consultations continued through the day, giving our observers relatively little opportunity to gauge progress, until the Presidency held an informal stocktaking plenary in the evening.
Minister Grace Fu of Singapore reported back on her and colleague Espen Barth Eide of Norway’s consultations on Article 6.
“There has been some progress to narrow differences,” Fu said. “Co-facilitators have produced text with a reduced number of options.”
Indeed, the latest version of the Article 6.4 draft decision contained just eight brackets, though there remain three separate options for the proposed transaction procedure.
However, and while the Secretariat did release a new Article 6.8 draft as well as an updated draft Guidance relating to the CDM, no new version of Article 6.2 was forthcoming as of midnight local time.
Meetings were scheduled overnight for Parties to react to the new 6.4 draft, “and to have one more go at a technical level to reach agreement” on the outstanding issues, Fu said.
Minister Fu added that the intention is to submit a final text by 1100 hrs on Friday, and declared herself “cautiously optimistic” that an outcome could be agreed.
Much of the stocktaking plenary was taken up with the headline issue of Loss & Damage, which as we’ve reported has been a formal item on the agenda for the first time.
Amid repeated expressions of discontent from developing country Parties at the lack of progress on the issue, the European Union proposed establishing a Loss & Damage Response Fund for the most vulnerable countries under Article 8 of the Paris Agreement.
“It would be established at this CMA, details would be designed by a work programme designed here, to enable it to receive funds from a broad donor base,” the EU’s Frans Timmermans told the plenary.
Timmermans said the fund could also be supplied from levies on aviation, shipping and fossil fuels, while Parties could also look at debt reform, and the reform of multilateral development banks.
The EU’s proposal was endorsed by Switzerland – who emphasised that the fund could also be resourced by private sector contributions – the UK and Norway.
Pakistan, speaking for the G77 and China group, told the plenary that “the success of COP27 depends on what we get on loss & damage. We want to remind our partners” – and he emphasised “all our partners” – that this is what we must do.”
IETA wound up its activities at the COP27 Business Hub today, though we will continue to observe the remaining hours (days?) of the talks and report back to the membership next week.
This will be (provisionally) the final COP27 Daily Report, depending on what happens overnight and on Friday. Our traditional full COP Report will be with you early next week, while we will also hold two Post COP27 Briefing calls for members on Tuesday November 22, at 0800 GMT and at 1600 GMT. Details on how to join these will be circulated shortly to all members.
Kind regards,
Alessandro
