COP27: U.N. climate talks go into overtime

In a bid to find a compromise, the European Union proposed late Thursday the creation of a fund for the most vulnerable nations but warned it was its final offer

UN climate talks that were supposed to end Friday were extended by a day in an effort to break a deadlock over creating a fund for developing countries devastated by the fallout from global warming.

Representatives from nearly 200 countries have gathered at the COP27 in Egypt for two weeks with the aim of driving forward action on climate change as the world faces a worsening onslaught of extreme floods, heat waves and droughts.

But wealthy and developing nations were still struggling to find common ground on creating the fund and on a host of other crucial issues with only hours before the summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh was due to end.

“Today we need to shift gears again, time is not on our side,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, who chairs the COP27 talks, told delegates.

“I remain committed to bringing this conference to a close tomorrow in an orderly manner.”

The daunting list of urgent tasks includes finding agreement—and funds—for the emissions cuts needed 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.

For many developing countries—and small island states threatened by sea level rise—the defining issues at the conference is money for the “loss and damage” caused by climate change.