Current:Home > InvestParties at COP27 Add Loss and Damage to the Agenda, But Won’t Discuss Which Countries Are Responsible or Who Should Pay-LoTradeCoin
Parties at COP27 Add Loss and Damage to the Agenda, But Won’t Discuss Which Countries Are Responsible or Who Should Pay
View Date:2024-12-23 20:02:10
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt—The United Nations climate summit officially opened on Sunday with the addition of negotiations over funding to compensate nations for “loss and damage” funding as an official agenda item.
Inclusion of the controversial topic—which poorer countries that are enduring the greatest harms from climate change see as critical to fairness in addressing global warming, and wealthy nations that have produced the vast majority of the emissions driving those damages have long resisted—required negotiations through the night leading up to the opening of the conference. And the victory is only partial for the parties advocating to include loss and damage in the negotiations, as the agenda item does not include discussions of how to determine liability or payments for the harms of human-caused climate change.
The agenda item was proposed by Pakistan, which in recent months incurred heavy losses in unprecedented floods that covered a third of the country, during talks in Bonn earlier this year in the leadup to the U.N.’s 27th Conference of the Parties opening this week. It is the first time in the history of the U.N. climate summits that parties in the negotiations have reached a consensus to include funding for loss and damage as an official agenda item.
“My country, Pakistan, has seen floods that have left 33 million lives in tatters and have caused loss and damage amounting to 10 percent of the GDP,” said Ambassador Munir Akram, the 2022 chair of the G77—a group of 134 developing countries, many of which are on the front lines of climate change—at the opening ceremony for COP27, where he urged that a finance mechanism be dedicated to addressing losses and damages. Pakistan recently has experienced a series of extreme weather events, including an extended heatwave in March when temperatures in the south rose close to 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
In his opening remarks at the conference, United Nations Secretary General Anotonio Gutteres called for international solidarity, but also a recognition that the populations that have done little to cause global warming bear the brunt of its impacts. “Those who contributed least to the climate crisis are reaping the whirlwind sown by others,” he said.
But even as loss and damage discussions are now expected to feature prominently during this year’s conference, the adoption of the agenda item did not come without caveats. To reach consensus, negotiators had to take discussions of liability and compensation off the table. That’s prompted concerns that the damages from climate change to developing nations could continue to be paid for with humanitarian aid, rather than from funds set aside by the wealthy nations that have done the most to cause the warming.
But civil society organizations and environmental activists say financial support for countries at the frontlines of climate change should not be charity.
“It has to come from reparations,” said Mohamed Adow, founder and director of Power Shift Africa, a civil society organization geared toward mobilizing climate action.
Loss and damage was highlighted earlier this year in the Sixth Assessment Report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and became a topic of intense discussion across the globe following the devastating floods in Pakistan. But the countries in the Global North are yet to accept responsibility. In a statement prior to COP27, U.S. climate envoy John Kerry expressed concern about how the shifting focus on loss and damage “could delay our ability to do the most important thing of all, which is [to] achieve mitigation sufficient to reduce the level of adaptation.”
Still, as science increasingly shows how costly disasters in the developing world are driven by global warming caused by wealthy nations, those advocating to attribute liability for losses and damages for climate change and determine appropriate reparations are pressing their arguments.
“Climate attribution is on our side, we can now say Pakistan’s floods were triggered by climate change, which is largely caused by the Global North, but that translates into nothing until they admit fault,” Ahmad Rafay Alam, environmental lawyer and member of the Pakistan delegation at COP27, told Inside Climate News.
Pakistan’s floods this year caused more than $30 billion in damages. The climate catastrophe triggered conversations about loss and damage financing and climate reparations across the Global South. While the adoption of loss and damage as an agenda item is being hailed as a win for Pakistan and the G77, delegates, activists and civil society members remain skeptical about the outcomes of the conference.
“If the liability is not there then who will finance these loss and damage mechanisms?” said Muhammad Arif Goheer, the lead negotiator for Pakistan and the principal scientific officer in the nation’s Ministry of Climate Change. “We may not reach a decision on this anytime soon.”
Despite the skepticism, Pakistan’s delegation is determined to highlight loss and damage financing through the negotiating process. And they have significant support.
U.N. Secretary General Guterres, in a joint press conference alongside Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, urged nations to make global commitments towards loss and damage. “The international community has a duty towards Pakistan,” he said.
But, as with many other issues in the climate negotiations, success in the discussions of loss and damage will be measured by the concrete steps that all the nations agree to take—consensus that historically has been hard to come by.
“The litmus test of this and every future COP is how far deliberations are accompanied by action,” said Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, at the opening plenary. “Everybody, every single day, everywhere in the world, needs to do everything they possibly can to avert the climate crisis.”
For the Pakistan delegation, and many others from developing nations, this means pushing for a roadmap to establish loss and damage financing mechanisms. “If we’re able to push the conversation forward that will be a move in the right direction,” said Goheer.
This story was produced as part of the 2022 Climate Change Media Partnership, a journalism fellowship organized by Internews’ Earth Journalism Network and the Stanley Center for Peace and Security.
veryGood! (4)
Related
- 3 Iraqis tortured at Abu Ghraib win $42M judgement against defense contractor
- How Jackie Kennedy Reacted to Marilyn Monroe's Haunting Phone Call to John F. Kennedy: Biographer
- How Barbie's Signature Pink Is a Symbol for Strength and Empowerment
- Stop High Heel Pain Before It Starts With This Foot Spray
- Brianna LaPaglia Reacts to Rumors Dave Portnoy Paid Her $10 Million for a Zach Bryan Tell-All
- Collin Gosselin Accuses Mom Kate Gosselin of Creating “Barrier” Between Him and Siblings
- The ‘Sisyphus of Trash’ Struggles to Clean Relentless Waves of Plastic From a New York Island’s Beaches
- Vanderpump Rules' Scheana Shay Claps Back at Claim She's Forgiven Tom Sandoval for Cheating
- Lululemon, Disney partner for 34-piece collection and campaign: 'A dream collaboration'
- How Jackie Kennedy Reacted to Marilyn Monroe's Haunting Phone Call to John F. Kennedy: Biographer
Ranking
- Tech consultant testifies that ‘bad joke’ led to deadly clash with Cash App founder Bob Lee
- Love Island U.K.'s Molly-Mae Hague and Tommy Fury Engaged After Welcoming Baby
- Megan Fox Caught in Middle of Scuffle After Man Attempts to Punch Machine Gun Kelly
- Married To Medicine Star Quad Webb's 3-Year-Old Great Niece Drowns In Her Pool
- Will Reeve, son of Christopher Reeve, gets engaged to girlfriend Amanda Dubin
- You'll Bend and Snap for Reese Witherspoon and Daughter Ava Phillippe's Latest Twinning Moment
- Texas Cities Set Temperature Records in Unremitting Heat Wave
- Midwest States, Often Billed as Climate Havens, Suffer Summer of Smoke, Drought, Heat
Recommendation
-
Chiefs block last-second field goal to save unbeaten record, beat Broncos
-
This Sweat-Wicking Top Will Keep You Cool and Comfortable on the Hottest Days
-
More than 80 million Americans remain under heat alerts
-
Carlee Russell's disappearance was 'hoax'; charges possible, police say
-
15 new movies you'll want to stream this holiday season, from 'Emilia Perez' to 'Maria'
-
Zawe Ashton Makes Marvelous Comment About How Fiancé Tom Hiddleston Empowered Her
-
Bachelor Nation's Matt James and Rachael Kirkconnell React to Speculation Over Their Relationship Status
-
Camila Cabello’s NSFW Vacation Photos Will Have You Saying My Oh My