China should pay up for climate damage: German minister

BERLIN: Countries like China should contribute more to compensation payments for countries hit by climate-fuelled disasters, German Development Minister Svenja Schulze told broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk on Friday (Nov 18).

"China has 28 per cent of the greenhouse gas emissions at the moment. So they must also contribute to dealing with the damage," Schulze told Bayerischer Rundfunk in an interview.

"They always hide behind the fact that they are a developing country. But de facto they are no longer a developing country."

Climate negotiators on Friday were mulling a late-night European Union proposal aimed at resolving a stubborn impasse over financing for countries hit by climate-fuelled disasters and pushing this year's UN climate summit in Egypt closer to a final deal.

The EU proposal would be to set up a special fund for covering loss and damage in the most vulnerable countries - but funded from a "broad donor base".

The EU offer is at odds with a proposal by developing countries and China that called for all developing countries to have access to the fund. That proposal used a UN definition that would have allowed China to receive, not contribute, money.

Negotiations on mandatory compensation payments in Sharm el-Sheikh were ongoing, Schulze said, "and I also do not believe that this can be concluded today, but that we still need an extension".