Beautiful Virgin Islands

Saturday, Jul 26, 2025

Rich, Developing Nations Face Divide Over Fund To Slow Global Warming

Rich, Developing Nations Face Divide Over Fund To Slow Global Warming

COP27: The standoff comes with wealthy nations pressed into acknowledging the need to compensate emerging economies for accelerating climate change, and as total funding needs appear poised to run into trillions, rather than billions, of dollars.
COP27 entered its final week Monday with rich carbon polluters and developing nations at loggerheads over how to speed up and fund reductions in emissions to slow global warming.

The standoff comes with wealthy nations pressed into acknowledging the need to compensate emerging economies for accelerating climate change, and as total funding needs appear poised to run into trillions, rather than billions, of dollars.

"There is still a lot of work ahead of us," Egyptian Foreign Minister and COP27 president Sameh Shoukry said at the UN climate talks in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

He said countries were still split on key issues as ministers join the talks this week to seek a consensus before the summit is scheduled to end on Friday.

COP27 participants were watching for signals from the first face-to-face meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping -- representing the world's top two polluting nations -- at the G20 summit in Indonesia.

The White House said following the bilateral talks that the United States and China will resume climate cooperation, which Beijing had halted in anger after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August.

"The two leaders agreed to empower key senior officials to maintain communication and deepen constructive efforts on these and other issues," the White House said.

Ani Dasgupta, president of the research non-profit World Resources Institute, said the global community was "breathing a sigh of relief".

"There is simply no time left for geopolitical fault lines to tear the United States and China away from the climate negotiation table."

'No consensus' on 1.5

Negotiators in Egypt are also eagerly waiting to see what climate message may appear in the final communique of the G20 meeting on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.

At last year's UN climate summit in Glasgow, nearly 200 countries vowed to "keep alive" the Paris Agreement's aspirational goal of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

"Confirming the 1.5C goal in Bali would make our lives easier," a senior negotiator at COP27 said.

Nearly 1.2 degrees of warming on average so far has seen a cascade of increasingly severe climate disasters, such as the flooding that left a third of Pakistan under water this summer, claiming at least 1,700 lives.

The Glasgow Pact urged nations to ramp up their commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions ahead of COP27, but only around 30 nations have obliged.

This leaves the world on track to heat up by about 2.5 degrees by the end of the century -- enough, scientists say, to trigger dangerous climate tipping points.

In Bali, UN chief Antonio Guterres said he would make a "strong appeal" to G20 countries, which account for 80 percent of emissions, to "have a common plan to reach net zero (emissions) globally by 2050".

China and India have called the 1.5-degree goal into question, with Beijing pointing out that the binding target agreed in Paris was "well below" two degrees.

The more ambitious 1.5 target is non-binding, but science shows it is a far safer global threshold.

Switzerland, on behalf of a six-nation group that includes Mexico and South Korea, proposed to introduce an item on the official COP27 agenda to reinforce the goal of "limiting global warming to 1.5C".

"It's mostly about securing a space for commitments on 1.5C," said a delegate who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Developed countries backed the proposal, but China and groups of developing nations rejected it over concerns that it would imply renegotiating the Paris Agreement, several delegates said.

"Basically there is no consensus," a Chinese delegate told AFP.

 Money talks

For developing countries, the priority at COP27 is for wealthy nations to make good on pledges to provide $100 billion a year in aid for poorer countries to green their economies and build resilience against future impacts.

There are also deep divisions over calls to create a "loss and damage" fund through which rich polluters would compensate developing nations for the destruction caused by climate-induced natural disasters.

Wealthy nations fearful of creating an open-ended liability regime agreed only this year to include this touchy topic on the formal agenda.

Developing nations are calling for the creation of a separate facility, but the United States and the European Union -- while not precluding such an outcome -- have said they favour using existing financial channels.

On Monday, the Group of 7 developed countries and nearly 60 nations most vulnerable to climate change launched a scheme aimed at providing financial support for communities battered by climate disasters, with more than $200 million of initial funding.

Kenneth Ofori-Atta, Ghana's finance minister and chair of the V20 group of nations most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, said the scheme "is long overdue".
Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Deputy attorney general's second day of meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell has concluded
Controversial March in Switzerland Features Men Dressed in Nazi Uniforms
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
Thai Civilian Death Toll Rises to 12 in Cambodian Cross-Border Attacks
TSUNAMI: Trump Just Crossed the Rubicon—And There’s No Turning Back
Over 120 Criminal Cases Dismissed in Boston Amid Public Defender Shortage
UN's Top Court Declares Environmental Protection a Legal Obligation Under International Law
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
The Podcaster Who Accidentally Revealed He Earns Over $10 Million a Year
Trump Announces $550 Billion Japanese Investment and New Trade Agreements with Indonesia and the Philippines
US Treasury Secretary Calls for Institutional Review of Federal Reserve Amid AI‑Driven Growth Expectations
UK Government Considers Dropping Demand for Apple Encryption Backdoor
Severe Flooding in South Korea Claims Lives Amid Ongoing Rescue Operations
Japanese Man Discovers Family Connection Through DNA Testing After Decades of Separation
Russia Signals Openness to Ukraine Peace Talks Amid Escalating Drone Warfare
Switzerland Implements Ban on Mammography Screening
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
Pogacar Extends Dominance with Stage Fifteen Triumph at Tour de France
CEO Resigns Amid Controversy Over Relationship with HR Executive
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
US Revokes Visas of Brazilian Corrupted Judges Amid Fake Bolsonaro Investigation
U.S. Congress Approves Rescissions Act Cutting Federal Funding for NPR and PBS
North Korea Restricts Foreign Tourist Access to New Seaside Resort
Brazil's Supreme Court Imposes Radical Restrictions on Former President Bolsonaro
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Judge Criticizes DOJ Over Secrecy in Dropping Charges Against Gang Leader
Apple Closes $16.5 Billion Tax Dispute With Ireland
Von der Leyen Faces Setback Over €2 Trillion EU Budget Proposal
UK and Germany Collaborate on Global Military Equipment Sales
Trump Plans Over 10% Tariffs on African and Caribbean Nations
Flying Taxi CEO Reclaims Billionaire Status After Stock Surge
Epstein Files Deepen Republican Party Divide
Zuckerberg Faces $8 Billion Privacy Lawsuit From Meta Shareholders
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
SpaceX Nears $400 Billion Valuation With New Share Sale
Microsoft, US Lab to Use AI for Faster Nuclear Plant Licensing
Trump Walks Back Talk of Firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell
Zelensky Reshuffles Cabinet to Win Support at Home and in Washington
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Irish Tech Worker Detained 100 days by US Authorities for Overstaying Visa
Dimon Warns on Fed Independence as Trump Administration Eyes Powell’s Succession
Church of England Removes 1991 Sexuality Guidelines from Clergy Selection
Superman Franchise Achieves Success with Latest Release
Hungary's Viktor Orban Rejects Agreements on Illegal Migration
Jeff Bezos Considers Purchasing Condé Nast as a Wedding Gift
Ghislaine Maxwell Says She’s Ready to Testify Before Congress on Epstein’s Criminal Empire
Bal des Pompiers: A Celebration of Community and Firefighter Culture in France
FBI Chief Kash Patel Denies Resignation Speculations Amid Epstein List Controversy
Air India Pilot’s Mental Health Records Under Scrutiny
×