COP31 Technical Talks Wrap Up the First Half: Just Transition Draft Attacked as Too Weak, African Push for a Standalone Adaptation Finance Item Fails
The 31st UN climate conference (COP31) reached its halfway point in Antalya, Turkey, on November 14, and the technical negotiations under its two subsidiary bodies wrapped up that day: the closing plenary was pushed back from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., many negotiating tracks remained mired in bracketed disagreement, some had no formal draft text at all, and the hardest questions were left for the ministerial second week.
Late on Friday the presidency, led by Australia's climate minister Chris Bowen as president of the negotiations with Turkey as host, released informal notes on two of the summit's most contested questions: a “just transition” mechanism to help workers and poorer countries move away from fossil fuels, and how much rich countries should pay to help vulnerable nations adapt to a hotter world. The just transition draft proposes a two-tier mechanism whose main outputs are a knowledge hub, reports, an annual meeting and “matchmaking” of countries' requests with support that already exists. It creates no new money.
Campaign groups were scathing. Amiera Sawas of the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative called it a mechanism “in name only,” and negotiators said they were shocked by how low the draft set the bar. A separate draft on the global goal on adaptation proposes tripling adaptation finance to at least $120 billion a year by 2035, but includes an option to review that target instead; developing countries' own estimate of need is far higher. African negotiators also failed to win a standalone agenda item on tripling adaptation finance; Dr. Antwi Amoah of Ghana, who chairs the African Group of Negotiators, confirmed it was not adopted.
On Saturday, thousands of campaigners marched through Antalya in the rain. The presidency also published a summary of options for the summit's main “cover decision,” listing what countries want included, from advancing the transition away from fossil fuels to recognising the role of forests and oceans, with none of it agreed yet; a proper draft is due early next week, and the summit is scheduled to close on November 20. UN climate chief Simon Stiell urged negotiators to move faster the same day, as GSM has reported.
Related: COP31 Enters Second Week: UN Climate Chief Stiell Urges Speed as Fossil-Fuel Divide Persists
(Source: Reuters)
Source: Reuters
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：土耳其安塔利亚天际线资料图，COP31在该市举行。照片：Sharon Hahn Darlin 摄，CC BY 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: File photo of the Antalya, Turkey skyline; COP31 is being held in the city. Photo by Sharon Hahn Darlin, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
