Professor Brendan Mackey, director of Griffith Climate Action Beacon at Griffiths University, told CNA’s Asia Now that the text had “very weak language”.
“Actually, there’s no such thing as abated coal power. It’s all unabated. And many economists would argue there’s no such thing as efficient fossil fuel subsidies,” he said. “So what does that text actually say?”
A NEW FUND
During the conference, negotiators from nearly 200 countries agreed to set up a “loss and damage” fund, to help poor countries suffering the most from the effects of climate change.
Loss and damage refers to the adverse and destructive impacts of climate change that cannot be avoided, explained Prof Mackey.
“There’s been a lot of resistance on the part of developed countries to accept this notion of ‘loss and damage’, and to establish a funding mechanism for it,” he said.
Prof Howden called the agreement to set up the “loss and damage” fund a big achievement and a major win for developing countries who are “rightly concerned about climate change”.
“At the moment, it’s a good statement of intent, but we need to see a lot more and I think that will take quite a while to negotiate,” he said, noting that there are no basic details about the principles of the fund, such as the allocation of contributions.
For all the latest world News Click Here
