New COP26 draft calls for doubling funding for climate adaptation

The new draft agreement presented this Saturday by the presidency of the climate summit COP26 urges developed countries to “at least double” before 2025 financing for developing countries’ adaptation to climate change.

The issue of climate finance is one of the main obstacles so far to find an agreement at the summit in Glasgow (United Kingdom), which should have ended yesterday, Friday.

The new text maintains the call to accelerate the phase-out of coal and “inefficient fossil fuel subsidies” and notes “with serious concern” that with the national emission reduction targets announced so far, the temperature will rise by 13.7% in 2030 compared to 2010.

At the same point in which it is called to accelerate the end of subsidies to hydrocarbons, “the need for support for a just transition” is also recognized now.

The document presented by the president of COP26, Alok Sharma, asks the parties to “review and reinforce” their national emissions targets for 2030, in order to align them with the temperature goal set in the Paris Agreement, although “taking into account different national circumstances.”

It also demands that the report on these Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), which includes the efforts of each country to reduce their emissions, be updated annually.

And in the thorny section of “loss and damage”, or how developing countries are compensated for the impact of global warming, the draft establishes a “dialogue mechanism” to address how they would be financed.

Observers agree despite everything that the new draft does not provide excessive news, and negotiators have recognized that there are still various contentious points that will need more effort to build consensus.