United Nations climate negotiations agree a historic damages fund

• The decision is considered as a win for smaller nations, which frequently experience more severe floods, droughts, heat waves, famines, and storms than more powerful polluters.
• At the U.N. Climate Summit’s final plenary, Sameh Shoukry, the president of COP27, converses with attendees.
• It has also previously been referred to as a climate justice issue.

The world’s nations have for the first time agreed to contribute to the cost of repairing the harm that climate change has caused to developing nations, but on Sunday, they came to an agreement that focuses more on mitigating the effects of fossil fuel use than actually addressing the cause of climate change.

The judgement creates a fund for what negotiators refer to as loss and harm. It is a significant victory for less developed countries, which have long demanded financial assistance, sometimes referred to as reparations, because they frequently suffer the consequences of climate-related floods, droughts, heat waves, famines, and storms despite having made minimal contributions to the pollution that warms the planet.

The agreement reached at the COP27 environmental summit in this Red Sea resort city in Egypt is a victory for developing countries that have fought for years for some form of compensation for the “loss and damage” they are experiencing as a result of floods, droughts, famine, heat waves, and storms that are made worse by climate change despite emitting a small amount of heat-trapping carbon pollution.

It has also previously been referred to as a climate justice issue.

Molwyn Joseph, the chair of the group of tiny island states that has been vocal on loss and destruction, stated, “Today, the international community has restored global faith in this essential process that is dedicated to ensuring no one is left behind.” “The COP27 agreements represent a success for the entire planet,” We’ve demonstrated to people who feel forgotten that we hear them, see them, and are treating them with the respect and consideration they deserve.

After playing climate change chicken over the cause of warming—the burning of fossil fuels—a settlement of sorts was reached.

Delegates voted to establish the compensation fund early on Sunday morning, but they did not address the thorny topics of a global temperature goal, reducing emissions, or the ambition to phase out all fossil fuels. As daylight began to break, the European Union and other countries protested what they saw as a retreat in the comprehensive cover agreement between the Egyptian presidency and them, and they threatened to disrupt the rest of the process.

The package was amended once more, and this time there was no evidence of what the Europeans would regard as reversal.

Espen Barth Eide, Norway’s minister of the environment, said the agreement “is not as robust as we would like it to be but it does not break” with what was established at the U.N. climate summit last year. It doesn’t increase ambition any further, so we’ll have to deal with it in COP28 the following year.

The fund “was particularly focused on this year’s discussions and less on the mitigation (reducing emissions) portion,” Eide continued.

Despite several countries advocating for a phase-down of natural gas, which does contribute to climate change, the agreement makes a covert mention of the advantages of natural gas as a low-emission energy source.

The new accord does not increase the urgency of calling for emission reductions. However, it does continue to mention the worldwide objective of keeping warming to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels. The Egyptian presidency persisted in making suggestions that referenced the Paris language of 2015, which also indicated a less stringent target of 2 degrees. Two degrees Fahrenheit of global warming has already occurred.

Even though India and other nations lobbied to include oil and natural gas in language from Glasgow, the agreement does not go beyond the call made last year to gradually reduce the use of “unabated coal” worldwide. That was also the topic of discussion at the last minute.

However, the historic compensation fund overshadowed that conflict.

The new fund, according to Harjeet Singh of the environmental organisation Climate Action Network International, “issued a warning shot to polluters that they can no longer get away with their climate harm,” in effect.

“They are liable to the people who are confronting supercharged storms, deadly floods, and rising seas,” he added. “From now on, they will have to make up for the losses they inflict.”

The choice was regarded as historic by outside analysts.

Minutes after the early morning approval, Ani Dasgupta, president of the environmental think tank World Resources Institute, said, “This loss and damage fund will be a lifeline for poor families whose houses are destroyed, farmers whose fields are ruined, and islanders forced from their ancestral homes.” “This successful COP27 conclusion is a crucial step in restoring trust with vulnerable countries,”

According to climate scientist Maarten van Aalst of the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Center, which responds to climate disasters, there are “quite a few positives to celebrate despite the gloom and despair” of not reducing emissions quickly enough to limit rising to 1.5 degrees.

It’s an example of what can be accomplished when the world’s poorest countries work together, according to Alex Scott, a climate diplomacy expert at the think tank E3G.

Scott stated, “I believe it’s enormous that governments are actually working out at least the first stage of how to deal with the problem of loss and destruction.” She added that, like with all climate financials, setting up a fund is one thing, but getting money coming in and going out is quite another. The developed world has yet to fulfil its 2009 commitment to provide $100 billion year in other climate aid, which was intended to assist developing countries in pursuing green energy and preparing for future warming.

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