Berlin, Paris Angry Over COP27 Results
Germany and France are disappointed by the lack of overall ambition shown by states in the final hours of Sunday's COP27 negotiations in Egypt in terms of phasing out fossil fuels and cutting emissions in heavy emitter countries like China and India.
German ministers were not happy with the final conclusions, which included a fund for developing countries most affected by climate change. They said this showed a lack of ambition in dealing with the climate crisis.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said in a statement, "The steps taken to reduce emissions are far from enough, given how bad the climate crisis is already making things."
“The gap to 1.5 degrees remains gaping, and some countries have blocked any attempt to close it a bit,” she added. The commitment to phase out fossil energy was blocked by “major emitters and oil-producing states”.
Economy Minister Robert Habeck also said that the outcome of the conference "cannot really make us happy."
But Habeck says that the EU and Germany's continued efforts at least kept things the same and made sure that the 1.5% goal was still in the conclusion.
"The consistent position of the EU and the careful way Germany handled the negotiations kept the conclusions from falling behind Paris and Glasgow," he said.
Even though the summit was supposed to end on Friday, talks went on until Sunday morning.
Both the EU and Germany were prepared to have “no result, rather than a bad one” and threatened to block any conclusion that was watered down too much.
For its part, France said at least the objective of 1.5°C was preserved.
“The COP27 agreement is not as ambitious as we French and Europeans would have liked. But it preserves the essential: the objective of limiting global warming to 1.5°C,” tweeted French energy minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
“At the request of France and the European Union, this agreement meets the expectations of the most vulnerable countries with a major step forward: the creation of new financing tools for loss and damage linked to climate disasters,” she added.
Source: Euractiv
