German delegation sees ambitious climate resolutions within reach in Dubai
The fact that the new fund for climate damage was made operational and filled with money right at the start of the conference had brought a "positive dynamic to the negotiations as a whole right at the start of the COP", said Morgan.
Germany and the host country United Arab Emirates had each pledged 100 million dollars (92 million euros) as start-up capital for the fund at the start of the conference on November 30. Pledges of more than 650 million dollars have now been made.
The negotiations on aid money for climate protection and climate adaptation measures in developing countries were also "moving in the right direction", said Morgan. However, the international community must negotiate an "ambitious overall package" in Dubai, which also includes comprehensive measures to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.
The resolutions of the World Climate Conference must be reached by consensus. A major point of contention is a fundamental commitment to a global phase-out of all fossil fuels. There are "major differences between individual countries", said Morgan.
Meanwhile, the Federal Cabinet in Berlin adopted a foreign climate policy strategy. The paper bundles the climate policy goals and measures of the ministries, defines priorities and creates a roadmap for "coherent government action in foreign climate policy", explained the Federal Foreign Office. It is "also a sign to the world that Germany is leading the way in international climate protection and is a reliable and supportive partner".
The environmental protection organization Greenpeace welcomed the move. However, it warned: "The new foreign climate policy will lose all effect if the current budget crisis of the traffic light system leads to a collapse in international and national climate protection."
The budget crisis at home does not restrict Germany's scope for action in Dubai, assured State Secretary for Development Jochen Flasbarth, who is part of the German delegation. Flasbarth said that after the first week of negotiations in Dubai, there was "every reason to be optimistic".
The head of the UN Climate Change Secretariat, Stiell, sounded a different note. "We have an initial text on the table, but it is a grab bag of (...) wish lists and a lot of posturing," he said on Wednesday, calling on the states to reach an ambitious agreement.
The latest negotiating text presented in Dubai includes a sentence calling for an "orderly and fair" phase-out of fossil fuels. However, there is also a variant in the draft that does not even mention the move away from oil, coal and gas, which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) classifies as urgently necessary. According to sources familiar with the negotiations, a new draft could be released on Wednesday.
The agreement reached at the 2015 World Climate Conference in Paris aims to limit global warming to well below two degrees compared to pre-industrial levels, preferably to 1.5 degrees. Since industrialization, the earth has already warmed by almost 1.2 degrees. According to the EU climate change service Copernicus, 2023 will go down in history as the hottest year since records began.
According to a recent research report, the world is at risk of crossing eight so-called tipping points that are significant for the global climate in the coming years. Climate researchers speak of these when certain climate phenomena cross thresholds beyond which they can no longer be reversed. The authors of the study led by the British University of Exeter include the ice sheet on Greenland and the subpolar gyre circulation in the north of the Atlantic Ocean among the tipping systems already under threat.
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Source: www.stern.de
