November 27, 2022: The United Nations Climate Change Conference COP27 closed today with a breakthrough agreement to provide “loss and damage” funding for vulnerable countries hit hard by climate disasters.
“This outcome moves us forward,” said Simon Stiell, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary. “We have determined a way forward on a decades-long conversation on funding for loss and damage – deliberating over how we address the impacts on communities whose lives and livelihoods have been ruined by the very worst impacts of climate change.”
Set against a difficult geopolitical backdrop, COP27 resulted in countries delivering a package of decisions that reaffirmed their commitment to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The package also strengthened action by countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the inevitable impacts of climate change, as well as boosting the support of finance, technology and capacity building needed by developing countries.
Creating a specific fund for loss and damage marked an important point of progress, with the issue added to the official agenda and adopted for the first time at COP27.
Governments took the ground-breaking decision to establish new funding arrangements, as well as a dedicated fund, to assist developing countries in responding to loss and damage. Governments also agreed to establish a ‘transitional committee’ to make recommendations on how to operationalize both the new funding arrangements and the fund at COP28 next year. The first meeting of the transitional committee is expected to take place before the end of March 2023.
ANI adds: India’s Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav called COP27 a “historic COP” adding “the world has waited far too long for the ‘loss and damage fund’ agreement.”
The minister was speaking at the closing plenary of COP 27 at Sharm El-Sheikh. Mr. Yadav welcomed the transition to a sustainable lifestyle and sustainable patterns of consumption. He stated that India welcomes efforts to address climate change.
UN Secretary-General, António Guterres in a video message to the 27th Meeting of the Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP27, said the conference has taken an important step towards justice. “I welcome the decision to establish a loss and damage fund and to operationalize it in the coming period. He added: “Clearly this will not be enough, but it is a much-needed political signal to rebuild broken trust.”
Meanwhile, in a media statement, Greenpeace says, The COP27 final decision text does not see any improved commitments to phase out all fossil fuels or sufficient measures to reach the 1.5-degree target, but it does contain a breakthrough agreement to establish a loss and damage finance facility.
Shiva Gounden, Pacific advisor at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said developing countries such as low-lying Pacific Island nations have compelled the world to take a step forward on the urgent and critical issue of loss and damage.
“The establishment of a loss and damage finance facility at COP27 marks a new dawn for climate justice. This breakthrough is a testament to the unwavering bravery and resilience of the most vulnerable against all odds, with rich developed countries choking progress throughout negotiations, having failed to do their homework since Glasgow.
“Pacific Island nations are on the frontlines of the climate crisis and at the forefront of the fight for climate justice. We’ve worked for a generation for this moment. More than thirty years after the idea of loss and damage was first introduced by Vanuatu, it is Pacific Island nations and the developing world that has made COP27 a real moment for action on climate justice.”
Both photos (UNFCCC) credit- Kiara Worth
