The EU proposal agreed to set up a special fund for covering loss and damage in the most vulnerable countries, pushing the U.N. climate summit in Egypt closer to a final deal.
The climate talks were stalled late Thursday night over major issues that appeared to remain unresolved. But the unexpected proposal by the European Union on two of the thorniest issues, tying compensation for climate disasters to tougher emissions cuts, showed delegates the light at the end of the tunnel.
Minutes after the United Nations summit’s chairman warned delegates that “we are not where we need to be in order to close this conference with tangible and robust outcomes,” the EU’s top climate official made the surprise offer.
To applause, he proposed a two-pronged approach that would create a pot of money for poor countries and push for steeper cuts of heat-trapping emissions by all countries, as well as the phasing down of all fossil fuels, including natural gas and oil.
“What we would propose is to establish a loss and damage response fund for the most vulnerable countries,” EU climate policy chief Frans Timmermans told the COP27 summit.
This would mean that high-emitting emerging economies like China would have to contribute, rather than having the fund financed only by rich nations that have historically contributed the most to global warming.
And it is the loss and damage issue that has dominated this year’s summit, with over 130 developing countries demanding that the meeting deliver a deal on a new fund to help them cope with the irreparable damage of floods, drought, and other climate impacts.
The issues of compensation and pollution-cutting “are two sides of the same coin as far as the European Union is concerned,” said European Union Executive Vice President Frans Timmermans, making clear that the 27-nation bloc won’t offer more money unless there are concessions on emissions targets.
“If we do not perform enough on mitigation, there is no money on Earth enough to address the consequences of the climate crisis,” Timmermans told The Associated Press. “The amounts of losses and damages will be such that we could never repair them.”
