SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt — Countries meeting in Egypt clinched a deal early Sunday that could send billions of dollars from wealthy countries to help developing nations treat the symptoms of climate change — but are still debating efforts to address the underlying disease.
In a victory for the countries that are burning, drowning and sweltering under the already-rampant impacts of global warming, the nearly 200 governments gathered here agreed to establish a new fund to aid the victims of climate change, sweeping aside decades of objections from the U.S. and Europe.
“It is a small victory for humankind,” said Avinash Persaud, special climate envoy to the prime minister of Barbados.
The announcement was met with loud applause in the summit meeting hall, after the talks had stretched through all of Saturday into the wee hours of Sunday local time. Delegates then begged for half an hour to review the final draft of a deal on which they had pinned any hope that this conference would show that governments intend to hasten their efforts to cut greenhouse gas pollution or shift away from fossil fuels.
The deal came together after weeks of grumbling by developing nations about U.S. stinginess, a slight melting of frosty relations between Washington and Beijing, and a last-minute threat by European negotiators to abandon the talks. Appearances by President Joe Biden and incoming Brazilian leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva punctuated the U.N. summit, U.S. climate envoy John Kerry came down with COVID-19 at the critical moment, and delegates complained about food shortages and a river of sewage that ran through the negotiation compound.
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