The president of the COP22 climate summit in Marrakech has made a direct plea to the incoming US president Donald Trump to join the struggle against global warming for the sake of humanity and the planet.

Salaheddine Mezouar, who is also the Moroccan foreign minister, had spent most of the week-long summit diplomatically trying to steer clear of questions about Trump, telling reporters at one point that “no one can stop history”.

But asked for a direct message to the president-elect in the last question of the summit’s final press conference, Mezouar issued a heartfelt plea. “We count on your pragmatism as well as your commitment to the spirit of the international community, in a huge struggle for our future, for the planet, for humanity and the dignity of millions and millions of people,” he said.

“This is about what our planet is going to be tomorrow, and what we are going to leave behind,” he added.

Trump was a spectre haunting much of the COP proceedings and a final “Marrakech call” by nearly 200 nations yesterday affirmed their “highest political commitment” to combating climate change, in a thinly coded warning to the far-right tycoon.

But his election did not prevent some of the world’s poorest countries from announcing a major emissions-cutting initiative before delegates boarded their planes home. In total, 48 nations promised to cut their carbon emissions dramatically and rapidly move to 100% renewable power as the UN climate summit in Marrakech drew to a close on Friday.

Bangladesh, Ethiopia and the Philippines were among the countries which said they would now file plans for becoming zero-carbon societies by the middle of the century, in line with the Paris deal’s aspiration of limiting global warming to 1.5C.

Al Gore, the former US vice-president, hailed the announcement as “a bold vision that sets the pace for the world’s efforts to implement the Paris agreement”.

“These ambitious and inspiring commitments show the path forward for others and give us all renewed optimism that we are going to meet the challenge before us and meet it in time.”

Mohamed Adow, Christian Aid’s spokesman, said: “It is moving to see, despite their relative poverty, the world’s most vulnerable countries leading the world in delivering the goals of the Paris agreement. They may be relatively small in size, but these countries have become titans in the world of climate leadership.”

However, the summit made limited headway on other key issues. Crucially, just $165m of new money was pledged by advanced economies for the global climate fund which enabled poorer countries to sign up to the Paris agreement.

A UN source insisted that the $100bn target would be met by 2020, but said trillions would be needed to make development more sustainable. “The question is, how are you going to change the whole financial structure on this planet to get these big sums going?” said the source.

“It is very, very worrisome,” Tosi Mpanu Mpanu, the chair of the Least Developed Countries group, told the Guardian. “If you have to make agriculture resilient, build a sea wall or ensure that diseases don’t spread, there is no money-making rationale behind it. So public money is needed.

“Unfortunately, at this stage it is all about climate finance which is calculated using creative accounting, and methodologies that were not agreed upon and are not conducive to building trust.”



Shortly before the summit ended, Mezouar told the Guardian: “It is a priority of this COP22 presidency to mobilise finance as this is really becoming a necessity and an emergency.”



OECD projections suggest that developed countries will have stumped up just one fifth of the initial funds needed for adapting to climate change of a $100bn-a-year global climate fund which is due to launch in 2020.

The fund also addresses “mitigation” – or preventing climate change – and Morocco says that a roadmap proposed by the UK and Australia in Marrakech will eventually allow around two-thirds of funds to come from public sources.

The US has so far only delivered around $500m of a promised $3bn donation to the global climate fund, and doubts hang over the likelihood of more being provided under a Trump administration.

Asked by the Guardian whether the US could provide an emergency fast-tracking of funds before 20 January when Trump is sworn in, Jonathan Pershing, the US special envoy on climate change, said that it would be premature to speculate on the new president’s actions in office.

But he added: “We believe that this is an essential part of the movement forward and there will therefore be substantial value for US citizens and taxpayers in addressing these questions and providing technical support.”

Mezouar said that the $100bn promised in the global climate fund was “nothing” when measured against the costs of climate change mitigation and adaptation, but that it could draw private investors into realisable projects.

Just 8% of climate finance committed to date has been disbursed, and of the largest money stream – energy finance – the poorest states have received just 5%, according to developing countries.





