The Third Vice President and Minister for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, has warned that Europe «is not willing» to participate in the outcome of the XXVII Conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change to be held in Sharm-El Sheikh (Egypt) if the ambition to keep below 1,5ºC the global temperature increase and if the efforts both in mitigation and in financing damages to the most vulnerable do not come from «all» the major emitters, in a clear allusion to the Asian countries.
Speaking to the media this Saturday morning at the COP27 in Egypt, which should have ended on Friday and is facing its first day of extension, Ribera assured that Europeans are willing to «continue working» to find ways to ensure compliance with their international commitments and solidarity as they have done in recent months despite the difficulties facing Europe.
Thus, although she assures that in the Climate Summits «never» a step backwards has been taken, what the EU is not willing to do is that there are «other major emitters from other parts of the world» who consider that this issue does not concern them or that there are those who think that this whole system around the fight against climate change consists exclusively in providing financial resources and not in providing «what really matters» which is a very important transformation of the economic model, a very substantial reduction of emissions that allows maintaining climate security and a decarbonization as quickly as possible.
The Minister for Ecological Transition insists that it is «fundamental» to strengthen solidarity and support mechanisms for the most vulnerable countries, but she stressed that «the greatest solidarity» has to do with the level of climate risk: in other words, «keeping alive the possibility of not increasing the temperature above 1.5ºC».
In this sense, he reiterated that the first measure to be able to respond to the most dramatic losses and damages of the countries continues to be to ensure that it is possible for the temperature not to rise above 1.5ºC.
For this reason, he warned that if the decisions proposed at this conference are to slow down these increases in ambition and the contributions to which «everyone» must contribute to make it viable, «Europe is not going to participate in this result».
The vice-president thus clarified who she was referring to, which is not the most vulnerable, whom she said «have always fought hard, with Europe» to maintain the spirit of 1.5ºC, but the higher income developing countries that contribute «a lot» by size of economy or type of activity to global emissions and that «are reluctant to increase their participation» in the objective of reducing emissions or even to contribute to these solidarity funds.
In this way, he insisted that in this global action «everyone» has to contribute according to their capacity. In this sense, he explained that the capacity of the countries in the year 2022 does not coincide with the capacity of the countries in the year 1992, just as the contribution of each country to global CO2 emissions differs from their contributions in 1992. «The language or the grouping of countries in this convention around the 1992 photo is useless,» he denounced.
Regarding the mechanisms for financing losses and damages to developing countries, Ribera assured that Europe wants to increase in a «very radical» way the means available to face this situation, but she reiterated that the more serious the situation is, the more difficult it will be to tackle even with the available resources the damages generated by climate change, hence she stressed the importance of reaffirming the objective of 1.5ºC.
The stumbling block, according to the Vice-President, is that the EU wants to work on a «mosaic of tools» such as facilitating early warning systems, construction or reconstruction of infrastructure in these countries and immediate reaction to major disasters with «different tools that exist today» at the international level but which require more resources.
«The combination of all of them makes it possible to respond more clearly and effectively to the needs that may be identified,» said Ribera, who explained that Europe’s response was to create a new fund for losses and damages, but one that would concentrate especially on the most vulnerable countries.
This mechanism, for the EU, should include contributions «not only from the budgets of the most industrialized countries, but should also include an increase in the number of actors contributing, whether public or private».
In short, what the EU does not want is the creation of a new fund that «dilutes the effort in favor of the most vulnerable» and establishes a new mechanism «exactly like many others that already exist» for «all» developing countries. «We believe that it should be concentrated only in the most vulnerable countries,» Ribera added, which is a new allusion to the emerging powers.
Finally, she said that if what comes out of COP27 is «something that does not provide any specificity» on the fact that the effort should be focused on the most vulnerable, «then it is no longer clear that it is worth making that effort in terms of financing».
«We have some critical hours ahead of us today», urged Ribera, who hopes that the Presidency will achieve consensus among all the groups and bring positions closer together through a «more balanced» proposal.
Finally, she recalled that the purpose of the multilateral climate process is to decarbonize the economy and guarantee climate security. «We cannot go back on what was already included in the Glasgow agreements last year (1.5ºC). It is essential to maintain this commitment to the reduction and elimination of fossil fuels,» he said.
