EU: Loss and damage fund ‘a small step’ and much remains to be done

Despite the approval of the historic fund for loss and damage from climate disasters in the poorest and least polluting countries, COP 27 ended with vital issues pending. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the approved deal was “a small step” for climate justice, while other EU members stressed they were disappointed by the lack of greater commitments on reducing greenhouse gases.

A bittersweet end to the world’s most important summit to mitigate global warming.

The president of the European Commission (EC), Ursula von der Leyen, cataloged on November 20 as “a small step towards climate justice” the fund agreed at COP27 for loss and damage that will help poor countries in the face of climate disasters. The leader of the European Commission stressed that much more needs to be done for the planet.

“We have treated some of the symptoms, but we have not cured the patient of the fever,” the head of the Executive of the European Union (EU) said in a statement.

The diplomatic leader stressed that the agreement reached marks a milestone in the long struggle to obtain aid for poor communities on the front lines of global warming and those who have historically contributed least to the climate crisis. However, he stressed that this measure is insufficient, because the commitment to gradually reduce fossil fuels has not been fulfilled.

“COP27 has kept the 1.5ºC target alive. Unfortunately, however, it has not met the commitment of the world’s major emitters to phase out fossil fuels, nor with the new commitments on climate mitigation.”

Lack of clarity on the financing and operation of the fund for loss and damage

While climate activists welcomed the new loss and damage fund, some were cautious, noting that many aspects related to its execution still need to be resolved, noting that it is unclear how much money can be raised or where it will come from.

The new deal would differ from others backed by the UN because it hopes to raise money from a much wider range of sources, including development banks and innovative sources of financing, such as fossil fuel taxes or airlines.

Initially, the most developed countries and multilateral institutions will contribute, but the discussion remains open about the contribution of large economies – which are large polluters – such as China, a demand of the United States and the European Union that consider that nation and other large emitters of greenhouse gases, which are qualified as ‘developing countries’, they should contribute.

The fund had been at the center of disputes at the conference, with the least developed nations most affected by global warming demanding that the wealthy countries of the North compensate them for being the main causes of the climate emergency, while they resisted for much of the conference to accept it.

Last Friday, November 18 and in a surprising change of position, the 27 EU countries agreed and put on the table the proposal, which had to be approved by the nearly 200 countries that participated in the summit.

That move boosted stalled talks and a group of 134 African, Asian and Latin American states and small island nations, along with flood-ravaged Pakistan, presented a united front to push the plan.

Finally, the two-week meetings in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, hampered by global geopolitical tensions, ended early Sunday with a pact to establish new funding in the face of rising costs of climate damage, such as rising sea levels.

“Governments have laid the cornerstone of a long-awaited new fund to provide vital support to vulnerable countries and communities that are already being devastated by the accelerating climate crisis,” said Yeb Saño, head of Greenpeace in Southeast Asia, who called the pact in this matter “a victory for people power.”

Details on how it will operate and where the money will be made from will be worked out by a committee next year.

The reduction of CO2 emissions, the great outstanding debt

The basis for the COP27 discussions was the historic Paris Agreement, signed in 2015 within the framework of COP21, in which world leaders agreed efforts to keep the increase in the average temperature of the planet below 2 ºC, with respect to pre-industrial levels, and seek that this increase has a limit of 1.5 ºC.

However, it was not possible to advance further commitments to achieve those vital goals.

The leader of the European Parliament delegation in Sharm el-Sheikh, Dutch Green MEP Bas Eickhout, was more forceful in his criticism. “Europe had to fight until the end to maintain last year’s ambition. But this is insufficient if we are to meet climate targets. Therefore, I can only conclude that 2022 has been a lost climate year,” he said.

There was no improvement on last year’s commitment to phase out coal use, despite intense lobbying from many groups who wanted to get a commitment to “phase out all fossil fuels” in the text.

Faced with this panorama, the European Union said it was “disappointed”.

“What we have before us is not enough. It does not provide the added efforts needed for major emitters to increase and accelerate their emissions cuts,” European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans said at the summit’s closing session.

The difficulties in finding a consensus on this issue were of such magnitude that some countries even tried to introduce in the final text a goal of limiting global warming of 2 degrees Celsius, considered by other nations as a setback compared to what was pointed out at COP26, in Glasgow, in 2021.

Countries such as Russia, Saudi Arabia or Nigeria strongly opposed the proposals to phase out not only coal (agreed last year) but oil and gas.

Finally, the threshold of 1.5 degrees has been respected, but without major commitments to achieve the pressing goal.

Source: France 24