By John Ikani
Countries at the United Nations COP27 climate summit in Egypt have adopted a final agreement that establishes a ‘Loss and Damage’ fund to help poor nations cope with the extreme weather events caused by global warming.
The fund would earmark money for what is known as loss and damage: When rising seas, more powerful storms and other effects that scientists link to climate change cause destruction that is sudden or potentially irreparable.
Following tense negotiations that ran through the night, the summit’s Egyptian presidency released a draft text of the overall agreement early on Sunday and also called a plenary session to push the document through as the final, overarching agreement for the UN summit.
However, many of the more contentious issues regarding the fund were pushed into talks to be held next year, when a “transitional committee” will make recommendations for countries to then adopt at the COP28 climate summit in November 2023.
The recommendations will cover “identifying and expanding sources of funding”, which refers to the vexed question of which countries should pay into the new “loss and damage” fund.
Delegates applauded after the fund was adopted early on Sunday 20 November following days of marathon negotiations over the proposal. Senior Coordinator of the African Group on Loss and Damage, Alpha Kaloga, said it was an important step.
“Today is a symbolic day, it is a symbolic day in terms of the impact that this decision will have on the future.
“Developing countries have been fighting for 30 years to have a fund, to have recognition of the losses and damages associated with climate change.
“Today, in the morning, when I left [the hotel] at 2am, I didn’t think we were going to get this deal. And there was understanding from everyone. The deal we have is a deal that reflects the collective will of all the countries.”
The complete COP27 agreement, of which the fund is a part, also reaffirmed the goal of keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels — a key demand from a number of countries.
But while the agreement represents a breakthrough in what has been a contentious negotiation process, it did not strengthen language around cutting planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.
Climate experts expressed dismay about a lack of mention of fossil fuels, or the need to phase them down to keep global temperatures from rising. As it did last year at the Glasgow summit, the text calls for a phasedown of unabated coal power, and “phase-out of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies,” but does not go further to call for a phase-out of all fossil fuels, including oil and gas.
“The influence of the fossil fuel industry was found across the board,” Laurence Tubiana, CEO European Climate Foundation, said in a statement. “The Egyptian Presidency has produced a text that clearly protects oil and gas petro-states and the fossil fuel industries. This trend cannot continue at COP28 in the United Arab Emirates next year.”
