The UN climate conference COP27 begins on November 6 in the Egyptian seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
(dpa) The designated President of the UN Climate Change Conference COP27, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Samih Schukri, has demanded more financial aid for poorer countries. Schukri told the German Press Agency in Cairo that previous aid had “no real impact” in the fight against global warming. “I don’t want to downplay the commitments. But 100 billion US dollars on a global scale, on the scale of the capabilities of the industrialized countries, whose budgets sometimes reach trillions of dollars – that’s tiny.”
This year’s UN climate conference begins on November 6 in the Egyptian seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. There, representatives from around 200 countries will debate for two weeks how global warming can be curbed. It is also about further financial aid against damage caused by climate-related extreme weather. Developing countries are demanding more money for this.
“How we make these funds available is a question of the collective will of the parties and the world community,” said Schukri. Rich and poor countries are equally affected – “regardless of which seas may lie between them”. The Egyptian foreign minister cited the flood disaster in Pakistan and the destruction caused by storms on the American east coast as examples. “We’re all sitting in the same boat.”
Years ago, the rich countries actually agreed to mobilize 100 billion US dollars each year from 2020 to 2025 (about 100 billion euros at today’s exchange rate) for climate protection in poorer countries. So far, a one-off amount of 83 billion dollars has been raised, and follow-up financing is not secured. “There is a lack of trust,” said Schukri. Countries would not have “necessarily fulfilled their previously made commitments”. Both poor African countries and the “broad community of developing countries” therefore have expectations of richer countries.