The COP27 climate conference enters its second week with countries still far apart on key issues
AFP

The South African government welcomed the draft outcomes text from the 27th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) held in Egypt from Nov. 6-18.

The draft text captures many vital issues that were discussed during the conference, including the urgency of climate change, said the South African government.

"The draft correctly frames the climate crisis and its solutions in terms of the sustainable development goals and just transitions, leaving no one left behind, and the need for broader financial sector reform to achieve these," said Peter Mbelengwa, spokesperson of the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries.

Mbelengwa said that South Africa expects the multilateral development banks and international financial institutions to take decisive action to scale-up climate finance by 2023.

The first draft of COP27

The United Nations' first draft of the climate deal was published on Thursday, which mentioned the importance of "accelerating measures to phase down coal power and phase out fossil fuel subsidies."

The UN also recognizes "the need for support towards just transitions" concerning the issue.

The text underlines the importance of putting all our effort into achieving the temperature goals set out in the Paris Agreement, mainly holding the global average temperature increase to below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and pursuing actions to restrict the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The 20-page document, described as a 'non-paper' by the U. N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, is 8,400 words long, which is nearly twice as long as the Glasgow pact.

The second draft of COP27

At 10 pages, the second draft of the Cop27 cover text is significantly shorter than the previous one - something that will be welcomed by negotiators.

A lot of the superfluous content and repetitions from the last version have been removed or edited.

Although there is still a commitment to phase down coal power, the proposal made by India and other countries to phase down all fossil fuels has been excluded from the draft.