Cop 27: Talks shift to political phase

The UN Cop 27 climate talks are heading into the final stretch, with Egyptian officials hoping that high-level talks can provide progress on a number of key issues by the end of the week.

Although technical negotiations on some issues are yet to be finished, Cop president Sameh Shoukry, Egypt's foreign minister, today said he is ready to move to high-level political discussions on a number of items on the agenda.

"Progress has been made but certainly more remains to be done if we are to achieve the robust outcomes that will drive ambitious and inclusive climate action," he said, urging countries to wrap up the remaining technical negotiations by the end of Wednesday.

Shoukry said he has selected ministers to pair up to lead the high-level consultations on key issues in the final days of the Cop being held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt..

Minsters from Singapore and Norway will facilitate the talks around Article 6 of the Paris climate agreement, which sets out the rules for global carbon trading. Technical talks at the Cop had been moving slowly in the first week, although carbon market supporters said they expected the pace to pick up this week.

Shoukry also paired ministers from India and Australia to handle the high-level work on finance, one of the most contentious issues at the talks, with a focus on setting a "collective quantified goal" to build on the previous quantitative commitments for $100bn/yr from developed countries.

And the ministers from Chile and Germany will lead talks on loss and damage, one of the other major issues in Sharm el-Sheikh. One of the goals of the Cop is to have what is known as the Santiago network fully operational. The network was established at last year's talks in Glasgow to catalyze and provide technical assistance to developing countries vulnerable to climate change impacts and to avoid and minimize where possible climate-related loss and damage. The term refers to the destructive impact of global warming and is a priority for many vulnerable countries experiencing extreme climate-related events, such as storms and rising sea levels.

Progress on loss and damage has been slow so far at the Cop. A draft text released yesterday showed developing and developed countries still at odds over how to provide funding to help the most-affected nations.

The talks have also made little headway around the possible elements of the cover decision to be adopted at the end of the conference, although Shoukry did not address that today.

Shoukry said he will meet with the ministers tomorrow and provide daily progress reports. The Cop is scheduled to end on 18 November, but previous gatherings have frequently run past their planned endings.

By Michael Ball