(The Guardian) US "100% ready" to discuss loss an damage - Kerry
John Kerry said the US was “totally supportive” of moves to address loss and damage, one of the most contentious issues at these talks, and “100% ready” to discuss the issue in detail. “We have engaged with our friends to work through the proposals,” he told a press conference at Cop27 on Saturday. “We want to engage.”
He said that Joe Biden, who visited the talks briefly on Friday, was also supportive. “We are 100% ready, [the president] has said, to discuss the issue of loss and damage. That’s why it’s on the agenda. We want to come to closure.”
Loss and damage refers to the impacts of extreme weather so severe that countries cannot adapt to them, and the negotiations revolve around how to provide financial assistance for developing countries afflicted by extreme weather, which can destroy their infrastructure and tear apart their social fabric.
Discussions of loss and damage as “compensation” to developing countries from the rich, or “liability” on the part of developed countries, as some activists have sought to frame the issue, are specifically excluded from the negotiations, and have been since the 2015 Paris agreement. Asked by the Guardian when the US would start paying into a finance facility for loss and damage, and whether China should also pay into such a facility, Kerry said: “It’s not fully defined, what is a facility. There are all kinds of different views on what it could be. No one can sign up to something on it, not yet … We are not at the [financial] facility discussions yet.”
He added: “But we want to engage on something very real.” On the issue of whether China, whose emissions are far larger than any other developing country, should pay for loss and damage in the poorest nations, he did not name China but referred to such countries indirectly. “There are a whole bunch of countries that have also contributed to where we are, so how do we manage that?”
He went on: “What we want to make sure is that we come up with something that satisfies people who are serious, and that we will come out with an agreement [in which] we are confident what the financial arrangements should be.”
He pledged: “We will find a way to have financial arrangements that reflect the reality of how we are all going to deal with the climate crisis. That’s what this is all about.”
Kerry also sought to reassure those concerned that countries were backsliding this year from commitments made at Cop26 in Glasgow to limit global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. “[Sameh] Shoukry [the Egyptian foreign minister who is president of the talks] does not intend to be the country that hosts a retreat from what was achieved in Glasgow,” he said. “Most countries here have no intention of going backwards.”
But he said countries that had not set out plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 in line with the 1.5C temperature limit agreed in Glasgow. He did not name the countries he meant.
On the question of US relations with China, he said there had been informal discussions between the countries at Cop27, but no formal meetings. Joe Biden is expected to meet the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, next week when the G20 meet in Bali from Tuesday. Kerry added: “[We are] waiting to see how things go at the G20.”
John Kerry said the US was “totally supportive” of moves to address loss and damage, one of the most contentious issues at these talks, and “100% ready” to discuss the issue in detail. “We have engaged with our friends to work through the proposals,” he told a press conference at Cop27 on Saturday. “We want to engage.”
He said that Joe Biden, who visited the talks briefly on Friday, was also supportive. “We are 100% ready, [the president] has said, to discuss the issue of loss and damage. That’s why it’s on the agenda. We want to come to closure.”
Loss and damage refers to the impacts of extreme weather so severe that countries cannot adapt to them, and the negotiations revolve around how to provide financial assistance for developing countries afflicted by extreme weather, which can destroy their infrastructure and tear apart their social fabric.
Discussions of loss and damage as “compensation” to developing countries from the rich, or “liability” on the part of developed countries, as some activists have sought to frame the issue, are specifically excluded from the negotiations, and have been since the 2015 Paris agreement. Asked by the Guardian when the US would start paying into a finance facility for loss and damage, and whether China should also pay into such a facility, Kerry said: “It’s not fully defined, what is a facility. There are all kinds of different views on what it could be. No one can sign up to something on it, not yet … We are not at the [financial] facility discussions yet.”
He added: “But we want to engage on something very real.” On the issue of whether China, whose emissions are far larger than any other developing country, should pay for loss and damage in the poorest nations, he did not name China but referred to such countries indirectly. “There are a whole bunch of countries that have also contributed to where we are, so how do we manage that?”
He went on: “What we want to make sure is that we come up with something that satisfies people who are serious, and that we will come out with an agreement [in which] we are confident what the financial arrangements should be.”
He pledged: “We will find a way to have financial arrangements that reflect the reality of how we are all going to deal with the climate crisis. That’s what this is all about.”
Kerry also sought to reassure those concerned that countries were backsliding this year from commitments made at Cop26 in Glasgow to limit global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. “[Sameh] Shoukry [the Egyptian foreign minister who is president of the talks] does not intend to be the country that hosts a retreat from what was achieved in Glasgow,” he said. “Most countries here have no intention of going backwards.”
But he said countries that had not set out plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 in line with the 1.5C temperature limit agreed in Glasgow. He did not name the countries he meant.
On the question of US relations with China, he said there had been informal discussions between the countries at Cop27, but no formal meetings. Joe Biden is expected to meet the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, next week when the G20 meet in Bali from Tuesday. Kerry added: “[We are] waiting to see how things go at the G20.”
