SHARM EL-SHEIKH: UN climate talks were extended by a day on Friday, in an effort to break a deadlock as nations tussled over funding for developing countries battered by weather disasters and ambition on curbing global warming, with wealthy and developing nations struggling to find common ground on creating the fund only hours before the summit was scheduled to end.

In addition, a campaign by the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu for the world’s top court to take a stance on protecting people from climate change gained momentum on Friday, winning the support of almost half the nearly 200 countries at a global summit.

In total, 86 countries gave their support to a resolution to ask the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to clarify what obligations governments have to protect their own populations and others.

Egyptian Foreign Minis­ter Sameh Shoukry, who cha­irs the COP27 talks, told delegates that the negotiations would spill into Satur­day, a delay not unusual in such sprawling UN climate talks.

“I remain concerned at the number of outstanding issues,” he said.

The daunting list of tasks includes finding agreement on reaffirming a goal to limit average warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels, which scientists say is a safer guardrail to avoid the most dangerous impacts.

Rich countries are also under pressure to finally fulfil promises to provide $100 billion a year to help developing countries green their economies and adapt to future impacts, and to hammer out future finance plans.

But for many vulnerable countries the defining issues at the conference is money for the “loss and damage” caused by climate change - a controversial issue previously blocked by wealthy countries fearful of open-ended liability.

Vanuatu and its supporters will now finalise a legal question they want to submit to the court if they win a planned vote at the UN General Assembly in mid-December.

An advisory opinion by the court would not be binding in any jurisdiction, but could underpin future climate negotiations by clarifying what financial obligations countries have on climate change, and define it as a human rights issue.

The idea for the resolution came from a group of Pacific island law students, who championed the idea with local government leaders and took their campaign to the United Nations in New York, and then the climate summit.

A cascade of climate-driven extremes in recent months - from floods in Pakistan and Nigeria to heatwaves and droughts across the world - have shone a spotlight on the ferocious impacts of a warming world for emerging economies as well as small island states threatened by sea level rise.

The G77 and China bloc of 134 developing countries launched an opening gambit this week, a proposal to create a loss and damage fund at COP27, with operational details to be agreed later.

A compromise response from the European Union, proposed late Thursday, suggested a fund specifically for the most vulnerable nations.

European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans told reporters on Friday that the EU offer had two “very important” conditions that differ from the G77 proposal.

It should be for “the most vulnerable” nations, he said, and the money should come from a “broad funder base” -- code for countries including China that have become wealthier since they were listed as developing countries in 1992.

“I have to say this is our final offer,” Timmermans said.

Pakistan’s climate minister Sherry Rehman, whose country chairs the G77+China group, expressed a willingness for “working with each other to find common ground”.

“It is up to all of us to steer a path that sends a powerful message from this COP that the implementation COP actually turned into a historic actionable COP,” she said.

She said the G77 had zeroed in on one of the options put forward in a draft loss and damage text “with a few changes that have been submitted and we are working on with each other”.

Published in Dawn, November 19th, 2022