COP27 host warns rich countries against ‘backsliding’ on climate pledges

The response of wealthy nations to climate change "is not up to the challenge" faced by the developing world and is too often subject to "backsliding", Egypt's climate negotiator said ahead of a key UN summit opening next week. 

The comments by Mohamed Nasr, lead climate negotiator at the Egyptian ministry of foreign affairs, highlights the growing rift between industrialised nations and the developing world ahead of the upcoming COP27 climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh.

Developing countries need tangible political commitments translated into action, not “another round of discussions that is not timebound,” Nasr told journalists on Tuesday (October 25).

“We are hearing nice pledges that make headlines, but when it comes to delivering on those pledges, things are different," Nasr said at a press briefing about the upcoming COP27 climate summit in the Egyptian seaside resort.

“We have been going in rounds and rounds and rounds of planning and then planning ... but when it comes to the implementation, usually the reality check does not kick in,” he remarked, warning against “potential backsliding on pledges”.

Nasr was referring to a 2009 commitment by rich nations to provide $100 billion per year in support to developing countries suffering the most from the consequences of climate change. The target so far has never been met, with a peak of $83 billion delivered in 2020.

Another commitment made at the COP26 in Glasgow last year was to raise $356 million for an Adaptation Fund created under the Kyoto Protocol more than twenty years ago. One year after the Glasgow summit, the secretariat of the Adaptation Fund is still waiting for $230 million of the $356 million that were pledged in Glasgow.

“The gap in finance is huge,” Nasr told journalists, expressing his concern. “Implementation on the ground is lacking, it is really lagging behind”. 

And the gap is even bigger when it comes to adaptation funding.

According to Nasr, 80% of climate finance is going to mitigation – technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions – leaving developing countries to face the 'loss and damage' caused by storms and floods which are becoming more intense with climate change.

African governments are currently using 5% of their GDP to pay for climate adaptation measures to prevent loss and damage, when the investments needed are on the scale of trillions, he said. 

“Many developing countries are highly indebted countries," Nasr remarked. "How can they take on more roles? They cannot.”

Not on track

COP27 is taking place against a tense geopolitical background, with Russia's war in Ukraine causing energy prices to skyrocket worldwide. 

At the same time, natural disasters such as the recent floods in Pakistan and Nigeria as well as fires and drought in Europe this summer have once again underlined the urgency of meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement. 

The IPCC report released in April showed that, without immediate and deep emissions cuts across all sectors, limiting global warming to 1.5°C is beyond reach.

The urgency to take action was underlined again this week by the United Nations' emissions gap report, which highlighted that world in on track for warming of 2.4-2.6°C by the end of this century under current climate pledges.

“Climate change is not giving us any space to breathe,” Nasr said. “Science is telling us we are not on track on anything.” 

[Edited by Frédéric Simon]