The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged wealthy and developing countries to end their "finger-pointing" at deadlocked climate talks and come to an agreement on paying for the losses experienced by vulnerable nations hit by natural catastrophes.
The two-week COP27 meeting in Egypt was officially scheduled to end on Friday. Hence, negotiators had a long night ahead of them as they tried to reach an agreement on the thorny topic of "loss and damage" and keep the negotiations from breaking down.
Guterres said there was “clearly a breakdown in trust” between developed and emerging economies, adding that the most effective way to build confidence would be to find an “ambitious and credible agreement” on loss and damage and financial support for vulnerable countries.
“This is no time for finger-pointing. The blame game is a recipe for mutually assured destruction,” he said, after flying back to Egypt from Bali where he had attended a G20 leaders meeting.
“The time for talking on loss and damage finance is over — we need action.”
Hours after Guterres’s intervention, Sameh Shoukry, the COP27 president, urged delegates to approach the last hours of talks with “urgency.”
“We are not where we need to be to close this conference with tangible and robust outcomes,” he said at a late Thursday session.
The two-week COP27 meeting in Egypt was officially scheduled to end on Friday. Hence, negotiators had a long night ahead of them as they tried to reach an agreement on the thorny topic of "loss and damage" and keep the negotiations from breaking down.
Guterres said there was “clearly a breakdown in trust” between developed and emerging economies, adding that the most effective way to build confidence would be to find an “ambitious and credible agreement” on loss and damage and financial support for vulnerable countries.
“This is no time for finger-pointing. The blame game is a recipe for mutually assured destruction,” he said, after flying back to Egypt from Bali where he had attended a G20 leaders meeting.
“The time for talking on loss and damage finance is over — we need action.”
Hours after Guterres’s intervention, Sameh Shoukry, the COP27 president, urged delegates to approach the last hours of talks with “urgency.”
“We are not where we need to be to close this conference with tangible and robust outcomes,” he said at a late Thursday session.
