COP27 negotiators search for way past sticking points

SHARAM EL-SHEIKH: The president of the COP27 climate conference in Egypt said Saturday that disagreements on key issues remain unresolved after round-the-clock negotiations and consultations towards a deal.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said the issue of loss and damage remained the main stumbling block to a deal among negotiators of nearly 200 countries at the UN climate summit, which went into overtime after its scheduled close on Friday passed without an agreement.
Mr Shoukry said the COP27 presidency had provided a draft resolution he described as balanced and one that could provide the basis for a breakthrough, but it was rejected by countries he did not name.
“Time is not on our side. We must rise to the occasion,” he said.
New Zealand’s climate minister James Shaw said the draft circulated by the presidency “has been received quite poorly by pretty much everybody. It is “entirely unsatisfactory”, he said.
A senior climate activist close to the negotiations said that the Egyptian presidency was not being transparent enough and said the draft it circulated was soft on fossil fuel. “There are so many problems with that document,” he said.
In a further setback, US climate envoy John Kerry tested positive for Covid-19, but had mild symptoms, his spokesperson said.
The EU’s climate chief, meanwhile, said that the 27-nation bloc was prepared to walk away from the negotiations if a satisfactory outcome could not be reached.
“We need to move forward, not backwards and all (EU) ministers … 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,” the EU envoy said.
All 196 countries represented at COP27 need to approve the final agreement.
The outcome of the climate summit is intended to drive global efforts to curb or slow down climate change, especially after a series of climate-related disasters this year. – News Agencies