‘This is our final offer’: Curveball EU proposal raises hopes for COP27 but deal hangs in the balance
Talks are running right down to the wire at the COP27 climate summit, with host nation Egypt today extending the conference into Saturday in a bid to carve out a last-minute deal.
The Egyptian COP presidency came under fire for leaving it to the final day of the two weeks of negotiations to draft a pact, leaving little time for countries to sign it off.
Until late Thursday, countries were at loggerheads on the issue of who should pay for climate damage in vulnerable countries, such as typhoons dumping water on small islands or drought leaving people starving in east Africa.
Pakistan led the charge from developing nations for a dedicated pot of money, while the European Union pushed for an alternative patchwork of support.
But a surprise 11th-hour proposal from the EU attempted to break the deadlock, agreeing to meet in the middle with a new fund, but with two major amendments.
“I have to say, this is our final offer,” Frans Timmermans, EU climate chief, said on Friday morning.
The bloc says its tweaks will better target the fund to the most vulnerable countries, and draws in wider sources of funding than just state contributions, for example via levies on polluting industries like flying, shipping and fossil fuel production.
The environment minister of Pakistan, where a deadly monsoon this year crystallised the debate about who should pay for a climate catastrophe, called the EU plan “not tenable”.
However Sherry Rehman told delegates the negotiating bloc of 77 countries and China that Pakistan chairs is refining its idea in response. They worry the broadened terms would allow historical polluters to hide from what they see as their moral duty to pay for the damage they have caused.
The biggest historical emitter, the United States, which has long resisted demands of payments for climate damages, has remained tight-lipped about the EU’s proposal. But it did meet with its European and British counterparts today to discuss it.
The EU’s lead negotiator on payment for climate damages, Irish minister Eamon Ryan, said he believed the US’s climate envoy John Kerry was “pretty much in agreement on the nature of the outcomes”. The two powers had a “shared understanding… as to what needs to happen,” he told Sky News.
Activists have been protesting outside the summit. Pic: AP
The EU would address a long-standing issue about China still being classed as a “developing” nation, by roping in major emitting, middle-income countries to pay into the fund too.
Whether the plan breaks the impasse in talks about a financial package, and therefore greases the wheels of negotiations on other areas like slashing pollution, will depend on how much support it can attract from vulnerable countries.
Most are still weighing it up, but some fear the narrowed eligibility would exclude many in desperate need.
“The fund shouldn’t be used as a poison pill to fix old divisions around expanding the donor base,” said Mohamed Adow, director of Power Shift Africa.
The beauty and the pain of a COP climate summit is it relies on consensus, meaning everyone has to sign off on the deal. It is down to Egypt as host to drive the process.
But in spite of the praised skilled and experience of its negotiators, the Egyptian presidency only produced a first draft of the deal on Friday morning, just hours before the summit was due to end.
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It later confirmed talks would overrun into Saturday – something that has happened at many previous COPs, including in Glasgow.
“We’re following a very, very clear game plan,” Egypt’s special representative Wael Aboulmagd said in a delayed press conference, responding to a question from Sky News. The plan gives them “a little bit more influence on the product”, he argued.
The pact makes little progress on cutting climate-heating emissions – an issue important to both developed and very vulnerable countries like small island states, who fear they will go under if global heating is not limited to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.
A suggestion by India to build on a previous pledge to “phase down coal” to all fossil fuels looks like it has not made the cut, and language about limiting warming to 1.5C remains vague.
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World
UN’s Antonio Guterres condemns ‘teaspoon’ of aid allowed into Gaza after dozens die in airstrikes
The head of the UN has said Israel has only authorised for Gaza what amounts to a “teaspoon” of aid after at least 60 people died in overnight airstrikes.
UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said on Friday the supplies approved so far “amounts to a teaspoon of aid when a flood of assistance is required,” adding “the needs are massive and the obstacles are staggering”.
He warned that more people will die unless there is “rapid, reliable, safe and sustained aid access”.
A woman at the site of an Israeli strike in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters
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Gaza: ‘Loads of children with huge burns’
Israel says around 300 aid trucks have been allowed through since it lifted an 11-week blockade on Monday, but according to Mr Guterres, only about a third have been transported to warehouses within Gaza due to insecurity.
The IDF said 107 vehicles carrying flour, food, medical equipment and drugs were allowed through on Thursday.
Many of Gaza’s two million residents are at high risk of famine, experts have warned.
Meanwhile, at least 60 people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes across Gaza overnight.
Ten people died in the southern city of Khan Younis, and deaths were also reported in the central town of Deir al-Balah and the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north, according to the Nasser, Al-Aqsa and Al-Ahli hospitals where the bodies were brought.
A body is carried out of rubble after an Israeli strike in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters
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‘Almost everyone depends on aid’ in Gaza
The latest strikes came a day after two Israeli embassy workers were killed in Washington.
The suspect, named as 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago, Illinois, told police he “did it for Gaza”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Mark Carney of fuelling antisemitism following the shootings.
The leaders of the UK, France and Canada are “on the wrong side of humanity and (…) history”, he said, after they threatened “concrete action” against Israel this week if it continues its “egregious” military operations in Gaza.
Mr Netanyahu also accused Sir Keir, Mr Macron and Mr Carney of siding with “mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers”.
Palestinians search for casualties in Jabalia, northern Gaza. Pic: Reuters
But UK government minister Luke Pollard told Sky News on Friday morning he “doesn’t recognise” Mr Netanyahu’s accusation.
Earlier this week, Mr Netanyahu said he was recalling negotiators from the Qatari capital, Doha, after a week of ceasefire talks failed to bring results. A working team will remain.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251 others.
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The militants are still holding 58 captives, around a third of whom are believed to be alive, after most of the rest were returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals.
Israel’s offensive, which has destroyed large swaths of Gaza, has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
A woman has been arrested after 12 people were reportedly injured in a stabbing at Hamburg’s central train station in Germany.
An attacker armed with a knife targeted people on the platform between tracks 13 and 14, according to police.
They added that the suspect was a 39-year-old woman.
Police at the scene. Pic: AP
Officers said they “believe she acted alone” and investigations into the stabbing are continuing.
There was no immediate information on a possible motive.
The fire service said six of the injured were in a life-threatening condition, three others were seriously hurt, and another three sustained minor injuries, news agency dpa reported.
The attack happened shortly after 6pm local time (5pm UK time) on Friday in front of a waiting train, regional public broadcaster NDR reported.
A high-speed ICE train with its doors open could be seen at the platform after the incident.
Railway operator Deutsche Bahn said it was “deeply shocked” by what had happened.
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Four tracks at the station were closed in the evening, and some long-distance trains were delayed or diverted.
Hamburg is Germany‘s second biggest city, with the train station being a hub for local, regional and long-distance trains.
In mid-May, the World Health Organisation assessed that there were “nearly half a million people in a catastrophic situation of hunger, acute malnutrition, starvation, illness and death”.
“This is one of the world’s worst hunger crises, unfolding in real time,” its report concluded.
Warning: This article contains images of an emaciated child which some readers may find distressing
Israel‘s decision this week to reverse the siege and allow “a basic level of aid” into Gaza should help ease the immediate crisis.
But the number of aid trucks getting in, so far fewer than 100 per day, is considered dramatically too few by aid organisations working in Gaza, and the United Nations accuses Israel of continuing to block vital items.
Israel-Gaza latest: Gaza enduring ‘atrocious death and destruction’, UN boss warns
“Strict quotas are being imposed on the goods we distribute, along with unnecessary delay procedures,” said UN secretary general Antonio Guterres in New York on Friday.
“Essentials, including fuel, shelter, cooking gas and water purification supplies, are prohibited. Nothing has reached the besieged north.”
Nineteen of Gaza’s hospitals remain operational, all of them are overwhelmed with the number of patients and a lack of supplies.
Baby Aya at Rantisi hospital in northern Gaza is dangerously thin
“Today, we receive between 300 to 500 cases daily, with approximately 10% requiring admission. This volume of inpatient cases far exceeds the capacity of Rantisi hospital, as the facility is not equipped to accommodate such large numbers,” Jall al Barawi, a doctor at the hospital, told us.
At least 94% of the hospitals have sustained some damage, some considerable, according to the UN.
Jall al Barawi, a doctor at Rantisi hospital
Paramedic crews are close to running out of fuel to drive ambulances.
The lack of food, after an 11-week blockade, has left thousands malnourished and increasingly vulnerable to surviving injuries or recovering from other conditions.
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Children are the worst affected.
Our team in Gaza filmed with baby Aya at the Rantisi hospital in northern Gaza. She is now three months old and dangerously thin.
Her skin stretches over her cheekbones and eye sockets on her gaunt, pale face. Her nappy is too big for her emaciated little body.
Aya’s nappy is too big for her emaciated little body.
Lethal spiral
Her mother Sundush, who is only 19 herself, cannot get enough food to produce breastmilk. Baby formula is scarce.
Aya, like so many other young children, cannot get the vital nutrition she needs to grow and develop.
It’s a lethal spiral.
This is what Aya looked like shortly after she was born
“My daughter was born at a normal weight, 3.5kg,” Sundush tells us.
“But as the war went on, her weight dropped significantly. I would breastfeed her, she’d get diarrhoea. I tried formula – same result. With the borders closed and no food coming in, I can’t eat enough to give her the nutrients she needs.”
“I brought her to the hospital for treatment, but the care she needs isn’t available.
“The doctor said her condition is very serious. I really don’t want to lose her, because I lost my husband and she’s all I have left of him. I don’t want to lose her.”
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Aya and her mother Sundush
Some of the aid entering Gaza now is being looted. It is hard to know whether that is by Hamas or desperate civilians. Maybe a combination of the two.
The lack of aid creates an atmosphere of desperation, which eventually leads to a breakdown in security as everyone fights to secure food for themselves and their families.
Only by alleviating the desperation can the security situation improve, and the risk of famine abate.
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