Nations make last-ditch attempt to strike climate deal

The two-week UN climate talks in Scotland went deep into overtime yesterday as nations debated a draft decision text that pushes for deeper emission cuts but which poorer nations say fails to fully take into account their needs.

The negotiations in Glasgow, called COP26, were meant to be wrapped up on Friday evening local time. Instead, negotiations continued deep into the night, with the latest draft text - the third iteration - emerging yesterday morning.

COP26 president Alok Sharma, from host Britain, said he was determined to wrap up the talks yesterday. But the start of formal proceedings was delayed as delegates continued conversations in huddles inside the main plenary hall for several hours.

US climate envoy John Kerry and his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua could be seen discussing the draft text on the plenary floor. Both then held discussions with other delegates, including Mr Frans Timmermans, vice-president of the European Commission, as well as Mr Sharma.

When the informal stock-taking plenary finally got under way late last night Singapore time, several nations spoke up to express some concerns, especially over climate finance, but none called for major changes to the latest draft.

China said the text was "by no means perfect" but added it had no intention of reopening the text for renegotiation, instead suggesting edits.

A senior delegate from India criticised the push to end fossil fuel subsidies, saying they have helped India and other poorer nations to develop and that it was unfair for wealthier nations to try to scrap them.

Mr Timmermans urged delegates not to open up the text. "Don't kill this moment by asking for more texts, different texts, deleting this, deleting that," a comment that brought applause.

The South Pacific island of Tuvalu, which is threatened by rising sea levels, spoke up in favour of the text. "Glasgow has delivered a strong message of hope and ambition. Now we need to deliver on this promise," its chief delegate said.

COP26 has been dominated by accusations that wealthy, big polluting nations have been shirking their responsibility of channelling climate finance to the most vulnerable nations, which face spiralling costs and impacts from wilder weather and rising sea levels.

Developing-nation delegates at the plenary acknowledged that more can be done on the finance issues, especially on the key issue of irreparable loss and damage from climate disasters and sea-level rise.

The text calls on nations to strengthen their climate pledges by the end of next year and to ensure updated pledges for this decade are aligned with the key goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 deg C.

It also retains a call for nations to speed up the shift from polluting coal and inefficient fossil fuel subsidies, while ensuring a just transition - meaning support for poorer nations to invest in clean energy. The text also urges developed nations to double adaptation financing for poor nations from 2019 levels by 2025.

But rich nations have still not met a US$100 billion (S$135 billion) a year funding pledge to poorer nations that was meant to be reached by last year.

Loss and damage are a top issue for many developing nations, such as small island nations, which say they are on the front line of climate impacts, yet not responsible for much of the greenhouse gas pollution fuelling global warming.

Small island nations told the plenary that COP26 did not deliver on loss and damage finance, and criticised the removal of a reference to a financing facility that could help them cope with the total destruction of infrastructure from more frequent and powerful typhoons and hurricanes.

Instead, the current text decides that a dialogue on discussing how to channel loss and damage financing be created with the goal to reach a conclusion by 2024.

"Saturday's text from COP26 on loss and damage is even worse than the text on Friday," said Dr Saleemul Huq, director at the International Centre for Climate Change and Development in Bangladesh and a veteran of UN climate talks.