At the end of two weeks of difficult haggling, the United Nations climate summit in Egypt is reported to have reached a deal to set up a fund that would dole out financial aid to the poorer, developing countries to help them tackle the fall-out from climate disasters.
The contentious issue of "loss and damage" payments had been one of the principal sticking points of the Sharm el-Sheikh Climate Change Conference (COP 27), which started on 6 November.
'Loss & Damage'
"Loss and damage" refers to the deleterious effects of climate change such as to crops, homes, infrastructure, human health, biodiversity, etc. Developing nations - predominantly from Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and South Pacific - have been clamoring for such a fund for decades, maintaining that the wealthier, industrialized countries should send them financial compensation for all that they have suffered as a result of global warming such as floods, heat waves and droughts. For example, since 14 June 2022, floods caused by heavier-than-usual monsoon rains in Pakistan left 1,717 people dead, and in Nigeria, floods this year have killed more than 600 people, injured thousands and displaced about 1.3 million, according to the country's ministry of humanitarian affairs.
In line with the deal struck at COP27 by participants from around 200 nations, a committee comprising representatives from 24 nations will be set up to brainstorm how the proposed fund should operate and what form it should take. Throughout next year this body will determine which countries should contribute to the fund and how the money should be channeled, as well as a plethora of other issues.
Alpha Kaloga, lead negotiator for the Africa Group, hailed the reported agreement as a "unique moment".
Dr Siobhan McDonnell, a negotiator for the Pacific islands, tweeted to say this was a "major moment".
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The question of a compensation fund served as a stumbling block for the climate change talks which were teetering on the brink of collapse early on Saturday, as the EU demanded tougher verbal commitments on reducing emissions. The European Commission’s executive vice-president Frans Timmermans, who is also the bloc’s climate chief, threatened to walk away from the talks, saying:
"We need to move forward, not backwards and all [EU] ministers ... are prepared to walk away if we do not have a result that does justice to what the world is waiting for - namely that we do something about this climate crisis."
"We'd rather have no decision than a bad decision," Timmermans had emphasized.
He also urged a deal stemming from previous climate agreements that would aim to maintain a 1.5C cap on the rise in global temperatures.
A remaining contentious aspect to the new "loss and damage" fund is how to assess a country's "vulnerability". The poorer nations hope to ensure that bigger emerging economies still classed as “developing” under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, signed in 1992, such as China, Saudi Arabia and Singapore, will contribute to the fund rather than benefit from it.
In any case, many aspects of the new deal will only be resolved by the next COP28, in November 2023.