The world has failed to reach an agreement to phase out fossil fuels after marathon UN climate talks were “stonewalled” by a number of oil-producing nations.
Negotiators from nearly 200 countries at the COP27 UN climate summit in Egypt took the historic step of agreeing to set up a “loss and damage” fund meant to help vulnerable countries cope with climate disasters and agreed the globe needs to cut greenhouse gas emissions nearly in half by 2030.
The agreement also reaffirmed the goal of keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
However, an attempt to address the biggest source of the planet warming emissions that are causing the climate crisis ended in a fiasco after a number of nations, including China and Saudi Arabia, blocked a key proposal to phase out all fossil fuels, not just coal.
UU demonstrators marching (unknown venue)
Addressing the summit early on Sunday morning, the European Union’s Climate Chief Frans Timmermans said the EU was “disappointed” with the final outcome of the summit.
“What we have in front of us is not enough of a step forward for people and planet … we should have done much more,” Timmermans said.
Victory for climate crisis victims
The agreement to help the world’s most vulnerable countries deal with loss and damage represents a breakthrough, however, in what has been a contentious negotiation process.
It marks the first time countries and groups, including longtime holdouts like the United States and the EU, have agreed to establish a fund for nations vulnerable to climate disasters made worse by pollution disproportionately produced by wealthy, industrialized nations.
Negotiators and non-governmental organizations observing the talks praised the deal as a significant achievement, after developing nations and small island countries banded together to amplify pressure.
The creation of the fund also became one of the key demands of activists attending the summit. Unlike in previous years, when huge protests and loud calls for action become part of the event, demonstrations were muted this year.
Protests are rare and mostly illegal in Egypt and the Egyptian government put strict limits on protesters attending the conference.
Still, the biggest protest of the summit saw hundreds of activists marching through the venue last weekend, demanding climate payments. On Friday, 10-year-old Ghanian activist Nakeeyat Dramani received a standing ovation in the plenary after calling on the delegates to “have a heart and do the math.”
Sean Gallup/Getty Image
The fund will focus on what can be done to support loss and damage resources, but it does not include liability or compensation provisions, a senior Biden administration official told CNN.
Reaching the agreement was not easy. The summit was originally scheduled to end on Friday, but went well into overtime with negotiators still trying to hammer out the details as the conference venue was being dismantled around them.
The US and other developed nations have long sought to avoid such provisions that could open them up to legal liability and lawsuits from other countries. And in previous public remarks, US Climate Envoy John Kerry had said loss and damage was not the same thing as climate reparations. (Kerry was quaranteened since Friday when he tested positive for COVID 19. He continued to communicate by phone.)
“‘Reparations’ is not a word or a term that has been used in this context,” Kerry said on a recent call with reporters earlier this month. He added: “We have always said that it is imperative for the developed world to help the developing world to deal with the impacts of climate.”
Details on how the fund would operate remain murky. The text leaves a lot of questions on when it will be finalized and become operational, and how exactly it would be funded. The text also mentions a transitional committee that will help nail down those details, but doesn’t set specific future deadlines.
And while climate experts celebrated the win, they also noted the uncertainty going forward.
“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,” World Resources Institute CEO Ani Dasgupta said. “At the same time, developing countries are leaving Egypt without clear assurances about how the loss and damage fund will be overseen.”
An outcome on a fund came this year in large part because the G77 bloc of developing nations stayed unified, exerting increased leverage on loss and damage than in past years, climate experts said.
“They needed to be together to force the conversation we’re having now,” Nisha Krishnan, resilience director for World Resources Institute Africa told reporters. “The coalition has held because of this conviction that we did need to stay together to deliver this – and to push the conversation.”
For many, the fund represents a hard-fought years-long victory, pushed over the finish line by the global attention given to climate disasters such as Pakistan’s devastating flooding this summer.
“It was like a big buildup,” former US climate envoy Todd Stern told CNN. “This has been around for quite a while and it’s getting all the more aggravating to vulnerable countries because there’s still not a lot of money getting put into it. As we can see the actual disaster impacts of climate change are getting more and more intense.”
Excerpts from: CNN COP-27 Summit
