COP27 delivers ‘loss and damage’ landmark — but little else

Not only is there no agreement on who will pay into fund for deserving nations, but there’s no forward movement at all on tougher emissions reductions, lament exhausted negotiators

Countries adopted a hardfought 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 swift approval for creating a dedicated loss and damage fund still left many of the most controversial decisions on the fund until next year, including who should pay into it.

Negotiators made no objections as COP27 President Sameh Shoukry rattled through the final agenda items. And by the time dawn broke over the summit venue in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-sheikh on Sunday, the deal was done.

Despite having no agreement for tougher emissions reductions, “we went with what the agreement was here because we want to stand with the most vulnerable,” said Germany’s climate secretary Jennifer Morgan, visibly upset.

Delegates praised the breakthrough on setting up the fund as climate justice, for its aim in helping vulnerable countries cope with storms, floods and other disasters being fuelled by rich nations’ historic carbon emissions.

But, asked whether the goal of stronger climate-fighting ambition had been compromised for the deal, Mexico’s chief climate negotiator Camila Zepeda summed up the mood among exhausted negotiators with: “Probably. You take a win when you can.”

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 from the global crisis.

The US also supported the loss and damage provision, but climate envoy John Kerry did not attend the session after testing positive for Covid-19.

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.

In line with earlier iterations, the new deal, as requested by India and some others, contains no reference to phasing down use of “all fossil fuels”. Instead it calls on countries to take steps toward a “phasedown of unabated coal power and phaseout of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies,” as agreed at COP26.

“Too many parties are not ready to make more progress today in the fight against climate crisis,” EU climate policy chief Frans Timmermans said, describing the deal as “not enough of a step forward for people and planet”.

The text also included 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.