COP27: EU left ‘disappointed’ by lack of ambition in final deal

SMA NEWS – SHARM EL-SHEIKH
The European Union is not hiding its disappointment with the climate deal struck at COP27, criticizing its lack of ambition and warning of an increasingly distant possibility to keep global warming under the 1.5 °C target.

“We have treated some of the symptoms but not cured the patient from its fever,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a short reaction statement.

Her deputy, Vice-President Frans Timmermans, who led the negotiations on the EU’s behalf, was more scathing and left no doubts as to his frustration.

The final deal “does not bring enough added efforts from major emitters to increase and accelerate their emissions cuts. It does not bring a higher degree of confidence that we will achieve the commitments made under the Paris Agreement and in Glasgow last year,” Timmermans said at the summit’s closing plenary.

“It does not address the yawning gap between climate science and our climate policies.”

The summit’s main outcome was a historic agreement to set up a brand-new fund for loss and damage, the financial compensations for the countries hardest hit by the climate crisis.

The breakthrough capped over 30 years of demands by vulnerable nations, who disproportionally suffer from extreme weather events despite their limited role in the release of greenhouse gas emissions.

“The establishment of a fund is not about dispensing charity. It is clearly a down payment on the longer investment in our joint futures,” said Sherry Rehman, Pakistan’s climate minister.