— Deal a ‘manifestation’ of Pakistan’s ‘excellent climate diplomacy’, says PM
— Climate minister says fund’s establishment ‘isn’t about dispensing charity’
SHARM EL-SHEIKH: Countries adopted a hard-fought final agreement at the COP27 climate summit early on Sunday that sets up a fund to help poor countries being battered by climate disasters — but does not boost efforts to tackle the emissions causing them.
After tense negotiations that ran through the night, the Egyptian COP27 presidency released the final text for a deal and simultaneously called a plenary session to quickly gavel it through.
The session first swiftly approved the text’s provision to set up a “loss and damage” fund to help developing countries bear the immediate costs of climate-fuelled events such as storms and floods.
But it kicked many of the most controversial decisions on the fund into next year, when a “transitional committee” would make recommendations for countries to then adopt at the COP28 climate summit in November 2023.
Those recommendations would cover “identifying and expanding sources of funding” — referring to the vexed question of which countries should pay into the new fund.
“The establishment of loss and damage fund at the UN climate summit is the first pivotal step towards the goal of climate justice. It is up to the transitional committee to build on the historic development,” tweeted the prime minister.
Shehbaz Sharif noted that Pakistan, as Chair of G-77 and China, successfully led the effort for acceptance of the demand” for loss and damage. The agreement “is a manifestation of excellent climate diplomacy that made this possible,” he declared in a series of tweets.
“I appreciate @sherryrehman & her team for their contribution and hard work,” he added.
The establishment of loss & damage fund at the UN climate summit is the first pivotal step towards the goal of climate justice. It is up to the transitional committee to build on the historic development. I appreciate @sherryrehman & her team for their contribution & hard work.
— Shehbaz Sharif (@CMShehbaz) November 20, 2022
Rehman, the environment minister, said the establishment of the fund “is not about dispensing charity.”
“It is clearly a down payment on the longer investment in our joint futures,” she said, speaking for the G-77 coalition of the developing nations.
Calls by developing countries for such a fund have dominated the two-week summit, pushing the talks past their scheduled Friday finish.
And after a pause requested by Switzerland to review the final text, negotiators gave no objections as COP27 President Sameh Shoukry rattled through the final agenda items.
By the time dawn broke over the summit venue in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, the deal was done.
FOSSIL FUEL FIZZLE
The two-week summit has been seen as a test of global resolve to fight climate change — even as a war in Europe, energy market turmoil and rampant consumer inflation distract international attention.
Billed as the “African COP,” the summit in Egypt had promised to highlight the plight of poor countries facing the most severe consequences from global warming caused mainly by wealthy, industrialised nations.
Negotiators from the European Union and other countries had said earlier that they were worried about efforts to block measures to strengthen last year’s Glasgow Climate Pact.
“While progress on loss and damage was encouraging, it is disappointing that the decision mostly copy and pasted language from Glasgow about curbing emissions, rather than taking any significant new steps,” said Ani Desgupta, president of the non-profit World Resources Institute.
In line with earlier iterations, the approved deal did not contain a reference requested by India and some other delegations to phasing down the use of “all fossil fuels”.
It instead called on countries to take steps toward “the phasedown of unabated coal power and phase-out of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies,” as agreed at the COP26 Glasgow summit.
The draft also includes a reference to “low-emissions energy”, raising concern among some that it opened the door to the growing use of natural gas – a fossil fuel that leads to both carbon dioxide and methane emissions.
Norway’s Climate Minister Espen Barth Eide told reporters his team had hoped for a stronger agreement. “It does not break with Glasgow completely, but it doesn’t raise ambition at all,” he said.
“I think they had another focus. They were very focused on the fund,” he said.
