The UN’s annual climate conference approved this Sunday an agreement that provides for the creation of a fund to finance climate damage suffered by “particularly vulnerable” countries, in a decision described as “historic”.
The resolution was unanimously adopted in the plenary assembly, followed by thunderous applause, at the end of the annual UN climate conference.
The resolution emphasizes the “immediate need for new, additional, predictable and adequate financial resources to help developing countries that are particularly vulnerable” to the “economic and non-economic” impacts of climate change.
Among these possible financing modalities is the creation of a “loss and damage response fund”, a demand from developing countries.
The modalities for the implementation of the fund must be prepared by a special commission, to be adopted at the next COP28, at the end of 2023, in the United Arab Emirates.
The issue of “loss and damage”, which was more at the center of the debate than ever, after the devastating floods that recently hit Pakistan and Nigeria, almost made COP27 unfeasible.
The issue was only placed on the agenda at the last moment, after reluctance from rich countries, and on the condition that the issue of possible legal liability or compensation was dropped.
“This is how our 30-year journey has finally, we hope, come to fruition today,” said Pakistan’s climate minister Sherry Rehman, who has often taken the lead in the world’s poorest nations.
Delegates this morning approved the offset fund, but did not address controversial issues such as the goal of controlling rising temperatures, cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and phasing out fossil fuels.
In the early hours of the morning, the European Union and other nations were opposing what they considered a setback in the Egyptian presidency deal, threatening to sink the rest of the process.
The agreement was revised again.
“It’s not as strong as we’d like it to be, but it’s not against” what was decided at last year’s UN climate conference, Norwegian climate minister Espen Barth Eide said.
The agreement includes a veiled reference to the benefits of natural gas as low-emissions energy, despite many nations calling for a gradual reduction in the use of natural gas, which contributes to climate change.
This new agreement does not foresee a reduction in emissions, but it keeps alive the global goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The Egyptian presidency had reverted to proposals dating back to 2015, which mentioned a more flexible target of two degrees.
The 27th United Nations Conference on Climate Change began on November 6 and ended today in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt, bringing together more than 35,000 participants, including several country leaders, with around two thousand interventions on more than 300 themes.
Source: TSF
