The Third Vice-President and Minister for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge has acknowledged that a «step forward» has been taken with respect to the first summaries of last night proposed by Egypt, which chairs the 27th Conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27), but has ventured that there is still «much battle» to be resolved to achieve the necessary «final balance» with which to reach an agreement on this tense day at the Summit in Sharm El Sheikh.
«We are in a better condition than we were this morning. This morning there was a very dangerous moment because of the sense of disrespect for the parties and the facilitators. It had generated a very tense situation and I believe that the Presidency has tried to improve its proposals, but we have to find a final balance in the set of decisions that it presents to us,» the minister analyzed in statements to the media.
Ribera acknowledged that the new texts presented take a step forward in reinforcing solidarity in losses and damages of the most vulnerable countries, although it is not the proposal made by Europe, more in favor of «consolidating a mosaic of resources» to solve the problem only to create a new system to concentrate efforts on the most vulnerable.
«It is true that this possibility is not excluded», admitted Ribera, who said that it will be necessary to work on the design of this fund and the preferences when allocating resources so that it does not only have a public budget from donor countries but also resources not only from OECD countries but also from «large emerging economies with large emissions and with the capacity to be able to pay».
However, he has delayed this point for «the next negotiation» which will have to be resolved «in the coming months».
RED LINE: KEEPING 1.5ºC ALIVE In addition, he explained that the discussion on the mitigation work program is still open because he sees it «impossible» to respond to the needs of adaptation and those of loss and damage if there is not a «drastic drop» in greenhouse gas emissions to be able to «ensure the 1.5ºC objective» foreseen in the Paris Agreement.
In this sense, he reiterated that this is a «strong message» defended by the EU «from the very first moment»: «Europe cannot be an accomplice of an outcome that puts at risk that climate security that puts at risk the 1.5ºC objective due to a lack of ambition».
In this regard, he described as «very elementary» the proposal of the Egyptian Presidency since it «basically» maintains the basic commitments but makes «little progress» and even in some of the issues that were «good» in the previous Climate Summit, the COP26 in Glasgow (UK) because they were promoted as «an important advance, apparently here» in the meeting in Egypt «are very blurred».
«We still have to fight a strong battle in this work program,» he ventured about the time remaining for this COP27 that is spending hours on its first day of extension.
On the other hand, for the Minister of Ecological Transition, it remains to be resolved how to emphasize the political messages of the COP27 in what is called ‘cover decision’ (the decisions adopted) and how to finish structuring an «essential and increasingly complicated» work to measure and better understand the progress in adapting to the effects of climate change to build resilience.
Finally, he indicated that the parties are awaiting the final document to be proposed from the negotiating sessions being held this afternoon. Although she initially estimates that the plenary could be held at 21.00, Ribera believes that the final time will depend on how long it takes the COP27 President, Sameh Shoukry, to have «as clear and clean as possible» the set of decisions before convening the parties.
