COP27 | U.N. climate talks open in Egypt, climate compensation on agenda for first time

Source: The post is based on the article “COP27 | U.N. climate talks open in Egypt, climate compensation on agenda for first time” published in The Hindu on 7th November 2022. 

What is the News?

Countries have agreed to discuss providing financial support to address Loss and Damage caused by climate change at the 27th Conference of Parties (COP27) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC) at Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

What is Loss and Damage?

Loss and damage finance is a mechanism to support areas and communities that have already been severely affected by the climatic impact.

Developing countries have long demanded that their developed counterparts set up a finance facility to fund the losses and damages arising from climate change for which they are least responsible.

At COP26 in 2021 in Glasgow, high-income nations blocked a proposal for a loss and damage financing body instead of supporting a three-year dialogue for funding discussions.

The inclusion of the Loss and Damage agenda item in the COP27 marks the first ever time that it will be discussed formally in climate negotiations.

However, the developed countries accepted the agenda with a trade-off that it would not include ‘compensation and liability’ targeting to evade historical responsibility for emissions.

What is the significance of this decision?

Inclusion in the formal agenda is just the first step. The actual provision for compensation for climate disasters is a long way ahead. 

Getting the rich and developed world to make money available for climate response has been a difficult struggle. And quantifying loss due to climate impact is complicated. But this decision has set a positive tone for the COP-27 conference.