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Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt – The richest and historically most polluting countries at COP27 are blocking progress on establishing the loss and damage finance facility much needed and demanded by developing countries, according to analysis by Greenpeace International. This is despite the fact that financing arrangements for responding to losses and damages are an agreed agenda item.
In the climate negotiations, developed nations are consistently using delaying tactics to ensure that no agreement is reached on solutions to finance losses and damage until at least 2024. Furthermore, the blockers' group has made no proposals to guarantee that a dedicated loss and damage fund or entity under UNFCCC with new and additional sources of funds will ever be established.
Overall, developing countries are demanding agreement this year on a new fund or body to be established under the UNFCCC to target funding for losses and damage stemming from new and additional sources to address increasingly devastating and frequent climate impacts react. Many also say it should be up and running by 2024 at the latest, having reached an agreement to set it up that year. Developing countries are also proposing that the Loss and Damage Entity be placed under the UNFCCC's Financial Mechanism, similar to the Green Climate Fund and the Global Environment Facility.
The EU appears to be beginning to listen to some of the demands from developing countries, while the US, New Zealand, Norway and COP31 hopefuls Australia, among others, are the most visible blockers.
In his opening speech in Sharm el-Sheikh, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said getting concrete results on Loss and Damage is a "litmus test" of governments' commitment to the success of COP27.
World-leading experts from the natural and social sciences, including Prof. Johan Rockström, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, explained in a report publishes for COP27 that adaptation alone cannot keep up with the impacts of climate change, which are already worse than predicted.
Hon. Seve Paeniu, Finance Minister of Tuvalu said: “My homeland, my country, my future, Tuvalu is sinking. Without climate action, crucial to an agreement for a special facility for loss and damage under the UNFCCC here at COP27, we could see the last generation of children growing up in Tuvalu. Dear negotiators, your delay kills my people, my culture, but never my hope.”
Ulaiasi Tuikoro, representative of the Pacific Youth Council, said: “Loss and harm in my world is not about once a year talks and debates. Our lives, our livelihoods, our land and our cultures are being damaged and lost as a result of climate change. We want Australia to be part of our Pacific family in a meaningful way. We would like to be proud to host COP31 with Australia. But for that we need the commitment and support of our neighbors for what we have been demanding for thirty years. We need Australia to support a Loss and Damage Funding Facility at COP27.”
Rukia Ahmed, climate youth activist from Kenya, said: “I am so frustrated and angry that my community is suffering the effects of climate change right now, while rich country leaders are going in circles over loss and damage. My community is ranchers and we live in extreme poverty due to climate change. Children die from malnutrition. Schools close due to flooding. Livestock lost to extreme droughts. My community is killing each other due to limited resources. This is the reality of loss and damage, and the Global North is responsible for it. Global North leaders must stop blocking funding for losses and damages.”
Sônia Guajajara, Brazil's 2023-2026 Congresswoman and Indigenous Leader, said: “It's easy to have endless discussions about mitigation and adaptation when you're not threatened and losing your land and your home. Without social justice there is no climate justice - this means that everyone has a fair, safe and clean future and the guaranteed right to their land. Indigenous Peoples around the world must be at the center of all climate finance discussions and decisions and not be considered as an afterthought. We have been demanding this for a long time and it is time that our voice was heard.”
Harjeet Singh, Head, Global Political Strategy, Climate Action Network International said: “The symbolic act of the rich nations in providing finance at the climate conference in Sharm El-Sheikh is unacceptable. They cannot delay in fulfilling their commitments to help communities rebuild and recover from recurrent climate disasters. The urgency of this crisis requires that COP27 adopts a resolution establishing a new Loss and Damage Fund that can be operational by next year. The demands of the united bloc of developing countries, representing over 6 billion people, can no longer be ignored.”
Greenpeace International COP27 Head of Delegation Yeb Saño said: “Rich countries are rich for a reason, and that reason is injustice. All the talk of loss and damage deadlines and complexities is just code for climate delay, which is disappointing but not surprising. How can the lost trust between the Global North and the Global South be restored? Five words: Loss and Damage Finance Facility. As I said at the Warsaw COP in 2013 after Typhoon Haiyan: We can stop this madness. Developing countries must urge that a dedicated loss and damage financing facility be agreed.”
Mr Saño, the Philippines' lead climate officer for COP19 in Poland 2013, made a quick call for a loss and damage mechanism.
Notes:
Greenpeace International analysis of the COP27 Loss and Damage negotiations, based on transcriptions by civil society representatives, available here.
Arrangements to finance losses and damages have been agreed as a COP27 agenda item on November 6, 2022.
The “10 New Findings in Climate Science” This year presents key findings from the latest research on climate change and responds to clear calls for policy guidance in this critical decade. The report was created by the international networks Future Earth, The Earth League and World Climate Research Program (WCRP). COP27.
'Cooperate or perish': At the COP27, the UN chief calls for a climate solidarity pact and urges taxing the oil companies Funding of losses and damages.
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Photos: Greenpeace
