Opinion COP27: A lost opportunity

The path to the most significant outcome of the UNFCCC 27th Conference of Parties (COP27) was laid out on the first day of the two-week long meet. On November 6, the delegates assembled at Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt agreed to expand the COP’s agenda to include the demand to compensate countries that suffer climate change-related loss and damages. The summit concluded with the members agreeing to set up a global fund for the purpose. This is a major breakthrough. Though the idea of loss and damage reparations is nearly as old as global climate change negotiations, mitigation and adaptation dominated COPs for nearly three decades. There was a growing feeling amongst countries with the highest vulnerability to climate change, but with a minuscule GHG (greenhouse gases) footprint, that their concerns were not being addressed. The devastating floods in Pakistan, this year, led to the amplification of the demands for climate reparations.

After its inclusion in the Sharm El-Sheikh agenda, “loss and damages” got embroiled in the perennial source of strife in climate negotiations — funding. For more than 10 days, the US and the EU resisted all attempts to create a separate corpus, arguing, instead, that a chunk of the existing funds — by all accounts inadequate — be diverted for the reparations. Then on November 18 — the scheduled day of the COP’s closure — the EU agreed to create a new fund on the condition that developing countries that are big emitters should not be included as recipients. Instead, a way should be found to include them as potential donors. Developing countries saw this as a tactic to create a rift amongst them, and rightly criticised it as another prevarication ploy of the rich nations. Another day went in sorting out a compromise, according to which the “most vulnerable” countries will be prioritised and the door will be open for contributions by big emitters, still categorised as developing countries.

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After working 36 hours overtime, the climate negotiators may have just about saved UNFCCC the blushes. COP27 was a disappointment even by the none-too-high standards of the annual UNFCCC gathering after the high in Paris, seven years ago. At the last COP in Glasgow, countries had agreed to “phase-down” the use of coal. At Sharm El-Sheikh, a proposal by India and other developing countries to inject more ambition into the fossil-fuel reduction strategy did not make it to the final agreement. This was expected given the turn to coal in many countries in the aftermath of the Ukraine war. But the lack of progress after Glasgow speaks poorly about global intent, especially that of the rich countries, on arresting climate change. The Sharm El-Sheikh agreement does mention that $4 trillion will be required every year to meet the renewable energy targets till 2030. Yet, the rich countries are nowhere close to delivering on their commitment to provide $100 billion every year. COP27 was yet another opportunity missed in pushing them to fulfil this promise.