At COP27 climate talks, slow progress stokes worry over final deal

A week into this year’s UN climate summit in Egypt, frustrations were starting to flare as negotiators worried about resolving myriad details in time for a deal by the summit’s scheduled close on Friday.

With a long list of demands for COP27, country delegates said there had been little progress so far on the technical details of how to deliver on deals and pledges made in previous years.

Those pledges include making steep cuts in climate-warming emissions within this decade and contributing to hundreds of billions of dollars needed each year by developing nations already struggling to cope with the impacts of climate change.
 

One senior negotiator, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the slow pace so far meant the second week of talks, being held in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, would be bogged down with too many unresolved agenda items. 

That could also complicate the talks among government ministers on the so-called cover decisions - which make up the core political deal from the two-week summit.

“There's just a lot to get done in five days,” said Tom Evans, a policy analyst for the E3G non-profit think tank. “We haven’t seen huge solidarity between the developed and developing countries” but instead “disappointing commitments and action this year, which has dented trust.”