Sharm el-Sheikh: Countries adopted a hard-fought final deal at the COP27 climate summit early Sunday that sets up a fund to help developing countries hit hard by climate disasters – but not from the emissions they cause. It Does not promote tackle attempts.
After tense negotiations that lasted overnight, Egypt’s COP27 presidency released the final text for a deal and called a plenary session to wrap it up quickly.
The session swiftly approved a provision in the text to set up a “loss and damage” fund to help developing countries bear the immediate costs of climate-fuelled events like hurricanes and floods.
But it postponed many of the most controversial decisions on the fund until next year, when a “transitional committee” will recommend countries to adopt at the COP28 climate summit in November 2023.
Those recommendations would include “identifying and expanding sources of funding,” — referring to the question of which countries should pay into the new fund.
Calls by developing countries for such a fund have dominated the two-week summit, pushing talks past their scheduled Friday end.
And after a pause requested by Switzerland to review the final text, the negotiators offered no objections as COP27 President Sameh Shoukry rattled through the final agenda item.
The deal was done by dawn at the summit site in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
splashing fossil fuels
The two-week summit has been seen as a test of global resolve to fight climate change – even as a war in Europe, turmoil in the energy market, and rampant consumer inflation draw international attention. Does
Billed as the “African COP,” the summit in Egypt promised to highlight the plight of poorer countries facing the most severe consequences of global warming, mainly by wealthy, industrialized nations.
Negotiators from the EU and other countries said they were concerned about attempts to block measures to strengthen last year’s Glasgow climate accord.
“Progress on loss and damage was encouraging, but it is disappointing that decisions about curbing emissions have been mostly copied and pasted from Glasgow,” said Ani Dasgupta, president of the non-profit World Resources Institute.
In line with earlier iterations, the approved deal did not include a reference requested by India and some other delegations to reduce the use of “all fossil fuels.”
Instead, it called on countries to take steps towards “phasing out unsustainable coal power and phasing out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies,” as agreed at the COP26 Glasgow summit.
The draft also included a reference to “low-emission energy,” which raised concerns among some that it opened the door to increased use of natural gas. This fossil fuel leads to both carbon dioxide and methane emissions.
Norway’s Climate Minister Espen Barth Eide told reporters that his team was hopeful of a strong agreement. “It doesn’t break completely with Glasgow, but it doesn’t raise ambitions at all,” he said.
“I think they had another focus. They were very focused on the fund,” he said.