The COP27 plenary assembly in Sharm el-Sheikh approved the final document of the conference.
Barring the goal of keeping global warming within 1.5 degrees of pre-industrial levels , the major achievement of COP26 in Glasgow last year, but the EU has expressed "disappointment" over a final deal that "lacks ambition" in the roadmap set to reduce CO2 emissions.
«What we have before us is not enough to constitute a step forward for the population of the planet. It does not bring enough additional efforts from the biggest polluters,” said European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans .
« Someone – he added – is afraid of transition, of the costs of change. I understand all these concerns, many Europeans share them. But I want to ask all colleagues to find the courage to overcome this, we have already wasted a lot of time ».
The document underlines the importance of the transition to renewables and calls for the elimination of subsidies for fossil fuels, but calls only for the reduction of coal-fired electricity production, not its elimination. Above all, nothing is said about reducing or eliminating the use of fossil fuels, as several countries had requested.
Even the UN secretary general Antonio Guterres does not consider the agreement satisfactory: «We must drastically reduce emissions now, and this is an issue that this COP has not addressed . A loss and damage fund is essential, but it's not a response to the climate crisis that wipes a small island off the map, or turns an entire African country into a desert. The world still needs a giant leap on climate ambition. The red line that we must not cross is the line that takes our planet beyond the 1.5 degree temperature limit.
On the one hand, COP27 recognizes that to maintain the goal of 1.5 degrees, emissions must be reduced by 43% in 2030 compared to 2019, but with current decarbonisation commitments, the cut would be only 0.3% .
For the first time, the document provides for a fund to compensate for losses and damages caused by climate change (it is called loss and damage) in the most vulnerable countries and introduces an early warning system for extreme weather events around the world.
(Unioneonline/L)