Andreas Bjelland Eriksen, Norway’s environment minister, explained that the question of a new fund was especially polarizing because “binary questions, especially in international negotiations, are always very tricky to work around.” But he also told POLITICO that donor countries did acknowledged the “common sense of urgency that we need to do something rapidly to ramp up financing to be able to meet the targets” despite a more challenging economic environment.
In recent years, “with the new security situation, higher interest rates, all of those make what we work with here more difficult,” he said in the margins of the negotiations.
The members of the BRICS group, composed of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, played a central role in driving the negotiations in the plenary room and behind closed doors. They also amplified demands of the African group, positioning themselves as clear allies.
Brazil even put forward a proposal on the last day which would become the basis of the final compromise. A Latin American negotiator recalled that the talks had become “frustrating” with the first compromise from the Colombian presidency tilting “too much” toward the position of rich countries, but the Brazilian proposal would contribute to rebalancing this. The U.S., which never ratified the treaty, was not involved in negotiations, and not even present in the room as observer.
In the end, an EU official said the European Union was still “very satisfied” with the deal struck, as it prevented the creation of a new fund right away — which was a red line. They also said the positive outcome was made possible thanks to a close dialogue with the BRICS countries.
“Fighting for your own interest, that’s normal, legitimate,” the EU official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly, but noted that “all sides made compromises” and that the debates weren’t necessarily driven by “ideological” postures. “Everybody played its part.”