China should no longer be viewed as a developing country, and should contribute financially to addressing loss and damage resulting from climate change by the UN Cop 28 conference in Dubai in December, a German ministry official said.
"We can no longer allow China to dress up as South Sudan and pretend to be their peers," minister Jochen Flasbarth of Germany's development ministry said at a parliamentary hearing on Wednesday. "China is on the same level as us," Flasbarth said, adding that to some extent, "in terms of perpetrators", China is even on a higher level.
The development ministry represents Germany in the transitional committee, which was set up at the UN Cop 27 conference in November to work out the details of funding for loss and damage, which refers to the unavoidable and most destructive effects of climate change, and was the overriding topic at the summit.
Flasbarth voiced his optimism that by Cop 28, China, along with other heavy emitters such as oil-producing countries, will be made to contribute to loss and damage funding. "We will always insist that those who cause the damage are also among those who pay," he said, adding that Germany's government is in the process of "forging the alliances we need" for this.
The transitional committee will hold another two meetings before Cop 28. The main open issue the committee now faces is who pays into the fund, Flasbarth said.
Regarding concern among non-government organisations that funding decisions might be delayed by this, Flasbarth said that the Global Shield against Climate Risks initiated by Germany last year could plug some of the funding gaps.
The Global Shield, so far equipped with €270mn, was agreed by the G7 countries under Germany's presidency and by the V20 — a group of 55 economies systemically vulnerable to climate change — at Cop 27.
Germany has started talks with Pakistan, Ghana and Fiji on assessing potential aid under the Global Shield.
The EU's proposal at Cop 27 of a loss and damage fund for the "most vulnerable" countries had been unable to "break up" the united front presented by the G77 group of countries plus China, Flasbarth said.
The EU and some other parties at Cop 27 had challenged the developed country list which formed the basis for the talks, considering it significantly outdated given that it dates from 1992.
