COP27 agreement achieves a milestone on “damage and loss,” but not more

The COP27 climate meeting early on Sunday saw the nations accept a contentious final deal that establishes a fund to aid poor nations suffering from climate disasters but does not add efforts to minimise the emissions that cause them.
After difficult talks that lasted all midnight, the Egyptian COP27 presidency made the final language of the agreement public and convened a plenary meeting to swiftly approve it.
The rapid approval for establishing a specific loss and damages fund nonetheless postponed many of the fund’s most contentious choices, such as who should contribute to it, until the following year.

As COP27 Chair Sameh Shoukry blasted through the last agenda items, negotiators made no protests. The agreement was finalized when Sunday dawned over the summit site in the Egyptian paradise resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
They adhered to the terms of the agreement in this case even if there was no agreement for stricter carbon reductions, said Germany’s climatic change secretary Jennifer Morgan, who was clearly disturbed because they wanted to side with the most vulnerable.
Delegates applauded the fund’s establishment as a breakthrough in achieving climate justice, which aims to assist poor nations in coping with storms, floods, and other calamities fueled by wealthy nations’ previous carbon emissions.
Camila Zepeda, the head of Mexico’s climate negotiations, encapsulated the feeling among weary negotiators when she was asked if the goal of higher climate-fighting ambitions had been traded for the accord.
He stated that it is definitely conceivable to win.
Even if a war in Europe, unrest in the energy market, and escalating consumer inflation all divert focus internationally, the two-week meeting has been considered a test of the world’s commitment to combating climate change.
The gathering in Egypt dubbed the “African COP,” had promised to draw attention to the predicament of developing nations dealing with the worst effects of global warming, which is primarily the fault of affluent, industrialized nations.
The United States likewise backed the losses and damage clause, although climate ambassador John Kerry was unable to participate in the discussion because he recently tested positive for COVID-19.
Negotiating teams from the European Union as well as other nations had previously expressed concern over attempts to thwart measures aimed at strengthening the Glasgow Climate Pact from last year.
In a release, German Foreign Minister and authority figure Annalena Baerbock said that it is more than disheartening to witness some major polluters and oil producers blocking long-overdue mitigation and fossil fuel phase-out efforts.
The agreed pact did not include the reference to reducing the use of all fossil fuels that India and some other delegates had desired, in keeping with past revisions.

As agreed during the COP26 Glasgow meeting, it urged nations to move towards to the phasedown of uncontrolled coal power and the phaseout of ineffective fossil fuel subsidies.
According to EU climate policy leader Frans Timmermans, too several parties are not prepared to advance further in the battle against climate catastrophe today. He said that the agreement does not go far enough for people and the environment.
The text also made mention of “low-emissions energy,” which caused some to worry that it might pave the way for an increase in the usage of natural gas, a fossil fuel that emits both methane and carbon dioxide.
Espen Barth Eide, Norway’s climate minister, told reporters that although it doesn’t fully depart from Glasgow, it also doesn’t increase ambition.
Small island countries who were concerned about a sea level rise brought on by climate change had lobbied for the loss and damage agreement but bemoaned the lack of ambition in reducing emissions.