UN climate science body left in limbo without budget sign-off after deadlock

{"text":[[{"start":7.24,"text":"Work for the leading scientific body on global warming is in limbo after countries failed to approve its budget, scientists and negotiators said, following a push from fossil fuel-reliant nations to delay the publication of reports on climate change."}],[{"start":23.04,"text":"The stranglehold on funding for the UN-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, made up of hundreds of international experts, comes after a failure to resolve a three-year deadlock over when the next research should be delivered."}],[{"start":36.32,"text":"The budget for the body was not signed off at meetings in Ethiopia, which were suspended on October 16, with attendees saying the IPCC was being held hostage to the discussions about the publication timeline."}],[{"start":48.88,"text":"Bart van den Hurk, co-chair of the IPCC working group to assess the effects of global warming and need to adapt, told the FT that the failure “to agree on a budget is concretely affecting the implementation” of the group’s work plan."}],[{"start":62.92,"text":"Countries including Saudi Arabia, India and China have pushed for a delay to the publication of the IPCC reports until 2029, arguing that more time is needed to allow developing countries to fully contribute to the findings."}],[{"start":76.16,"text":"The delay means crucial information on climate change would not be available for the UN COP summit in 2028, when a critical assessment of each nation’s efforts to deal with climate change is due."}],[{"start":87.36,"text":"The lack of approved budget was “worrying”, said Bart Verheggen, a climate adviser at the KNMI meteorological institute and a delegate for the Netherlands to the IPCC process."}],[{"start":97.84,"text":"He said there were plans for the lead authors of the reports to meet early next year, but “there was no word yet whether or not [those meetings] can go ahead”."}],[{"start":105.88,"text":"This could lead to a “de facto” delay in the publication of the reports, he added, which was “exactly the objective some of the countries are pushing for”."}],[{"start":114,"text":"The IPCC meeting in Ethiopia was suspended without an agreement on the publication timeline for three reports: one on the level and causes of climate change, another on how countries can adapt and a third on options to avoid it worsening."}],[{"start":126.68,"text":"The latter is the most contentious among economies most dependent on fossil fuels, including Saudi Arabia, India and China. They have argued that earlier publication could compromise the quality of the reports and strain developing nations that lack capacity to rapidly vet thousands of pages of text."}],[{"start":144.12,"text":"But European countries, small island nations that are vulnerable to climate change and many developing countries are among those that argue the reports are needed ahead of the COP summit in 2028."}],[{"start":154.96,"text":"Chadian campaigner Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, chair of Planetary Guardians, a group of scientists and environmental advocates, also said the delay affected the contributions of developing-world scientists, which were “essential to ensuring assessments reflect national realities and priorities”."}],[{"start":171.48,"text":"“Climate change will not wait for a budget to be approved,” she said."}],[{"start":175.72,"text":"John Henry Melo Pineda, Panama’s adviser on climate change multilateral negotiations, said the IPCC had been left in an “unprecedented limbo”."}],[{"start":184,"text":"“A couple of delegations from the minority bloc have repeatedly threatened not to approve the budget unless their conditions on the timeline are accepted,” he said in a post on LinkedIn."}],[{"start":193.64,"text":"The IPCC said that as the meeting was suspended, “there are active agenda items . . . these remain open and under discussion. We cannot comment on ongoing business.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":207.92,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1793056787_2899.mp3"}