By Leah Montebello
The EU has threatened to walk away from COP27 talks based on concerns that the UN summit could backtrack on commitments.
“We’d rather have no decision than a bad decision,” EU climate chief Frans Timmermans told reporters at Sharm el-Sheikh on Saturday.
“All ministers . . . like myself are prepared to walk away if we do not have a result that does justice to what the world is waiting for, namely that we do something about this climate crisis,” he said.
Timmermans has expressed concerns about the 2015 Paris Agreement, which promised to keep global warming well below 2C from pre-industrial times, and ideally 1.5C.
The summit was due to end yesterday, but continued as negotiators remained in disagreement about key issues, including richer nations having to pay for the impact of climate change on poor countries. This is known as the “loss and damage” provision.
The EU has said it would accept a new fund on loss and damage, but Timmermans wanted to expand the number of countries that would be paying into this fund. He is calling for the list to include China.
This threat to walkout of talks is unprecedented from the EU, which continues to emphasise the importance of the Glasgow Climate Pact made last year.
This agreement included a commitment to reduce the use of coal.
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