Climate summit edges to a deal on damage fund

Countries were last night poised to sign off on a last-minute deal on who should pay for climate damage after almost two weeks of deadlock at the Cop27 summit.

Negotiators in Egypt reported an imminent breakthrough on the creation of a fund for compensating poor nations hit by extreme weather worsened by rich nations’ carbon pollution.

Nearly 200 countries attended the event in Sharm el-sheikh, which followed on from Cop26 in Glasgow last year, and last night they were set to agree on the text of the agreement.

Maldives Environment Minister Aminath Shauna said: “That means for countries like ours we will have the mosaic of solutions that we have been advocating for.”

Barbados negotiator Avinash Persaud called it a “small victory for humankind” that had resulted from leadership by small island nations and solidarity from the rest of the world.

“Now we need to redouble efforts behind an energy, transport and agriculture transition that will limit these climate losses and damages in the future,” he said.

According to the draft proposal, a “transitional committee” would make recommendations for countries to then adopt at the Cop28 climate summit next year.

Yamide Dagnet, director of climate justice at Open Society Foundations and a former negotiator at United Nations climate talks, said: “It punts on critical definitional issues around who pays and who exactly benefits, but provides the road map.”

The Cop27 summit follows a year of climate-fuelled disaster disasters, from floods that killed more than 1,700 people in Pakistan to drought withering crops in China, Africa and the United States.

It has intensified developing country demands for a dedicated loss and damage fund, which rich countries have for years resisted.

A report by 55 vulnerable countries this year estimated their combined climate-linked losses over the last two decades totalled about £440billion, or about 20% of their GDP.

According to the draft of the Cop27 compensation proposal, developed countries would be “urged” to contribute to the fund, which would also draw on other sources of money such as international financial institutions.

However, the proposal does not suggest major emerging economies such as China have to contribute to the fund.