COP27: Climate costs deal struck but no fossil fuel progress
A historic deal has been struck at the UN’s COP27 summit that will see rich nations pay poorer countries for the damage and economic losses caused by climate change.
It ends almost 30 years of waiting by nations facing huge climate impacts.
But developed nations left dissatisfied over progress on cutting fossil fuels.
“A clear commitment to phase out all fossil fuels? Not in this text,” said the UK’s Alok Sharma, who was president of the previous COP summit in Glasgow.
This year’s talks in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, came close to collapsing and overran by two days.
Luke-warm applause met the historic moment the “loss and damage fund” was agreed upon in the early hours of Sunday, as a confusing and often chaotic 48 hours left delegates exhausted.
The summit began two weeks ago with powerful statements from vulnerable nations. “We will not give up… the alternative consigns us to a watery grave,” Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Davis said.
On Sunday, Pakistan’s climate minister Sherry Rehman, who negotiated for the bloc of developing countries plus China, told journalists she was very happy with the agreement.
“I am confident we have turned a corner in how we work together to achieve climate goals,” she said.
The devastating floods in the at-risk nation Pakistan this summer, which killed about 1,700 people with estimated damages of $40 billion, have been a powerful backdrop at this summit.
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