Sharm el-Sheikh/New York, November 20 – The climate change summit has agreed to set up a fund to compensate vulnerable countries hit by climate disasters, a deal the U.N. said is a step towards justice for victims of climate change.
The summit attended by some 200 governments and international organizations ended on overtime in the Egyptian resort with a final document that disappointed climate activists, particularly regarding the issues of fossil fuels use and rising atmospheric temperatures.
“This COP has taken an important step towards justice,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, referring to the 27th Conference of Parties on climate change. “I welcome the decision to establish a loss and damage fund and to operationalize it in the coming period.”
But Guterres said, “Clearly this will not be enough, but it is a much-needed political signal to rebuild broken trust.”
Expressing his disappointment, Guterres pointed out that the final document left critical climate issues untouched.
“We need to drastically reduce emissions now – and this is an issue this COP did not address,” he said.
Negotiators at the summit under the Egyptian presidency adopted the deal known as loss and damage sought by poor countries to get developed nations, including the biggest carbon polluters like China and the United States, to pay for damage caused by floodings, wildfires and the likes.
But details of the agreement to create a fund for loss and damage such as which countries and how much will they contribute to the fund remain to be sort out at future talks.
The agreement on the loss and damage program helped the two-week long summit to adopt a final document on climate change. The loss and damage program and creation of a new financial facility to compensate for climate disasters were key demands of developing countries.
Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, president of the climate meeting, said decisions taken by negotiators before they adopted the final document were “a gateway that will scale up implementation and will enable us to transform to future of climate future neutrality and climate resilient development.”
“I call upon all of you to view these draft decisions not merely as words on paper but as a collective message to the world that we have heeded the call of our leaders and of current and future generations to set the right pace and direction for the implementation of the Paris agreement and the achievement of its goals.”
“The world is watching, I call on us all to rise to the expectations entrusted to us by the global community, and especially by those who are most vulnerable and yet have contributed the least to climate change.”
Negotiators concluded the meeting with the adoption of the loss and damage facility with a commitment to financially support vulnerable countries by the next climate summit in 2023 as well as the post-2025 financial goal for mitigation work program to reduce emissions faster, catalyze impactful action, and secure assurances from key countries that they will take immediate action to raise ambition and keep us on the path towards 1.5 degrees Celsius.
When the summit opened on November 6, it was strongly urged to implement programs agreed at previous meetings such as reduce emissions and finance projects to help countries adapt to climate consequences.
The U.N. said over 40,000 people have registered to attend, including government officials of the 197 countries that signed the UNFCCC, businesses, non-government organizations and civil society groups. The U.N. said COP27 programs include finance, science, youth and future generations, decarbonization, adaptation and agriculture, gender, water, energy, biodiversity and solutions.
At the COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, in 2021, governments agreed to act on climate plans agreed upon at the Paris conference in 2015, which called for limiting atmospheric warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the centuryand for developed countries to provide $100 billion a year to assist developing countries.
But a study published by the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on October 26 said plans submitted by countries to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to earth warming, have failed their targets and temperatures may rise to at least 2.5 C, a level deemed catastrophic.
(By J. Tuyet Nguyen)
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