Draft COP27 agreement fails to call for ‘phase-down’ of all fossil fuels: This story was originally published by The Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

The United Nations climate agency published a first draft on Thursday of what could be the overarching agreement from the COP27 climate summit in Egypt. However, much of the text is likely to be reworked in the coming days.

The reaction from some nonprofits has been swift and frustrated, with one Greenpeace representative saying it paved the way for “climate hell.”

The document, labeled a “non-paper,”
indicating it is still far from the final version, repeats the goal from
last year’s Glasgow climate pact “to accelerate measures towards the
phase-down of unabated coal power and phase out and rationalize
inefficient fossil fuel subsidies.”

Last year was the first time a decision agreed by all parties even mentioned fossil fuels and coal as part of the climate.

But it does not call for a phase-down
of all fossil fuels, as India and the European Union had requested. The
text does not include details for launching a fund for loss and damage, a key demand from the most climate vulnerable countries such
as island nations. Rather, it “welcomes” the fact that parties have
agreed for the first time to include “matters related to funding
arrangements responding to loss and damage” on the summit agenda.

It does not include a timeline for
deciding on whether a separate fund should be created or what it should
look like, giving time for negotiators to continue to work on the
contentious topic.