I have been attending many UN conferences since 1990 and have learned a lot about the negotiation process and the usual business atmosphere there. At the time when a summit or CoP (Conference of Parties) starts, initially, there is an air of enthusiasm filled in the participants, and the entire ambiance is full of emotions, like a hot air balloon of hopes and expectations. But as the conference reaches its end, this balloon starts to shrink with desperation when they see a struggle on the question of funding. After long deliberations and negotiations, everything converges on one big question “Where will the money come from to finance repairing the environment?”
The twenty-seventh conference of parties (CoP-27) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) could not be more relevant and timelier than it was this November 2022, when climate change onslaughts, particularly the devastating floods in Pakistan this summer, affecting 33 million people with huge damage of US $ 16 billion, cleared the last remaining doubts from public minds about the reality of climate change, happening with horrible disasters. The developing countries were both shaken and motivated by the aftermath of Pakistan’s destruction, and this urged them to fight strongly for the “Loss and Damage Fund” agenda.
At CoP-27 the developing world was delighted at the close of COP27 as the rich nations agreed to establish a “Loss and Damage Fund” for climate-vulnerable nations. It was like, finally, the rich nations acknowledged their accountability to pay the damage of poor nations by agreeing on the establishment of the fund. However, the poor and developing nations need to understand that in such types of funds, money doesn’t come like an instant wire transfer, but it comes sluggishly in the form of pledges attached to so many difficult conditions for developing countries.
Essentially, the Sharm el-Sheikh agreement is only the beginning of the process of establishing a Loss and Damage Fund. The rest of the developments to set up this fund will take place in the next CoP in Dubai in 2023. The rich nations always avoid the terms “liability” and “compensation” to avoid being bound to pay for the fund.
The developed countries have made it clear that this fund will only be a voluntary rather than a mandatory fund, and there will not be restrictions on only developed countries to contribute to it. We know that the much-trumpeted US $ 100 billion a year, announced in 2015, has never materialized, so how can we expect that this Loss and Damage Fund will be filled up with the required money?
And the other most important question is; will this fund bring new and additional money? It is not clear yet if the monies will be already committed to other environmental processes, as the language of CoP-27 is read as “complementing and including existing resources” rather than “new and additional.”
Also, it is to be decided which country will have priority to access the fund, according to its vulnerability to climate change, as a large number of countries are severely affected by the onslaught of climate change.
The central focus of climate negotiations has been the fact that large emitter countries who have caused climate havoc must take responsibility to pay back the poor nations who are suffering from climate change. Acknowledgment of this fact is perhaps the greatest achievement of UNFCCC negotiations. Loss and damage have been the key factor and driving forces behind the convention.
The slogan of Climate Justice, raised by the global civil society, became stronger and louder throughout the world. The countries that are responsible for global warming must pay for mitigation and adaptation.
So, summarizing the most important outcome of Sharm el-Sheikh is that developing countries got what they wanted, a Loss and Damage Fund, and developed countries were able to avoid what they have always been reluctant to commit; any concrete funding commitments or any acknowledgment of responsibility for compensations. Both camps went away with a sense of achievement.
We can only hope that the global community will hurriedly realize that there is no time left now for these gimmicks and that forthcoming climate change disasters will not slow down with these half-hearted steps of delaying a serious and concrete solution to climate disasters.
- Climate Change and Horrible Disasters: Take Away from Sharm El-Sheikh - 12/12/2022
- Illegal Fishing and Sustainable Blue Economy for Pakistan - 19/09/2021
- Governing Gwadar - 31/08/2021
