【COP27】Loss and Damage: New Hope Or Another Empty Promise?
2023-01-09
Connie Lam (CarbonCare InnoLab Youth Delegates to COP27)
The 2022 Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) has come to an end, and the establishment of the loss and damage fund is being seen as one of the few successes from the summit. The United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the summit had “taken an important step towards justice” with the loss and damage fund.
Although it is very disappointing to see very limited progress on new plans for reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the planet, this fund is critical and highlighted the element of fairness that the developed countries are finally paying for loss and damage to the least developed countries and small island developing states that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change.
It’s the first time since 2016 that COP has taken place on African soil, which accounts for the smallest share of the planet’s warming greenhouse gas emission -- less than 4%. However, climate change is punishing the African continent - rising sea levels, record flooding, extreme heatwaves and droughts are intensifying famine and displacing entire communities. This is the reason why African nations call for an end to “climate injustice” and demand wealthy countries to deliver promises and take up the responsibility to compensate for their losses.
At COP27, I met Vanessa Nakate, a Ugandan climate justice activist. She gave a powerful speech during one of the side events and reinforced the message - “We don’t need more words, we need real actions”. One example of broken promises is back in 2009, developed countries have already agreed to pledge $100 billion annually by 2020 to help developing countries adapt to the impacts of climate change. However, in 2020, wealthy nations had pledged just over $83 billion, meaning this $100 billion promise cannot be kept. With this new loss and damage fund, will this be another empty promise? Especially when the $100 billion agreed earlier is no longer enough, as more money is needed to address mitigation and adaptation, how would the developed countries ensure this fund can fulfill its purpose?
Apart from quantifiable losses, climate change will also result in unquantifiable losses and damages, such as cultural heritage, indigenous knowledge, societal and cultural identity. Simon Kofe, Tuvalu’s Foreign Affairs Minister, announced ahead of COP27, “as our land disappears, we have no choice but to become the world’s first digital nation. Our land, our ocean and our culture are the most precious assets of our people”. Although the loss and damage fund is being established, there is still a big question mark on whether it can solve the problem and preserve the culture and knowledge of low-lying nations like Tuvalu.
The full details of how the fund will work still need to be hashed out, including how this fund will operate, who will receive how much money, and who will pay how much. The parties have agreed to establish a ‘transitional committee’ to make recommendations on how to operationalise both the new funding arrangements and the fund at COP28 next year. The first meeting of the transitional committee is expected to take place before the end of March 2023.