On the eve of the Cop27 climate conference that has just finished in Sharm el-Sheikh, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, warned of the stark consequences of failure. "There is no way we can avoid a catastrophic situation if the two [the developed and developing world] are not able to establish a historic pact," he said in an interview with the Guardian. "Because at the present level, we will be doomed."
In the end, after two weeks of fraught and often bitter negotiations, the "historic pact" was finally struck. For the first time in 30 years of climate talks, developed countries agreed to provide finance to help rescue and rebuild poor nations stricken by climate-related disasters, known as a loss and damage fund.
"Cop27 has done what no other Cop has achieved," said a jubilant Mohamed Adow, the director of the think tank Power Shift Africa. "This has been something which vulnerable countries have been calling for since the 1992 Rio Earth Summit." It very nearly did not happen. The deal - formally gavelled through soon after 9 am local time last Sunday after a marathon negotiating session running 40 hours beyond the Friday evening deadline - came together only as dawn was breaking over the Red Sea.
The talks, which began on 6 November, had been logjammed for most of the previous fortnight. On day 12, last Thursday, Guterres flew in from the G20 meeting in Bali and looked shocked by the atmosphere he found. The doom he had warned of seemed to be unfolding.
"There has been clear, as in past times, a breakdown in trust between north and south, and between developed and emerging economies," he warned. "This is no time for finger-pointing. The blame game is a recipe for mutually assured destruction."
Denne historien er fra November 25, 2022-utgaven av The Guardian Weekly.
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Denne historien er fra November 25, 2022-utgaven av The Guardian Weekly.
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