The Rising Nepal
आश्विन २०७९

Nepal voices urgency of loss and damage fund at COP27

The 27th Conference of Parties to Climate Change (COP27) has completed its first week in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. The second week is seen as crucial for important decisions on adaptation, climate finance, and loss and damage issues. The climate change conference appears unlikely to make the necessary decisions to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

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सम्बन्धित सामग्री

COP27 a Success or a Failure?

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, chair of COP27, reads the nine-page Sharm El Sheikh Implementation Plan, the document that concluded the climate summit on Sunday Nov. 20, to an exhausted audience after tough and lengthy negotiations that finally reached an agreement to create a fund for loss and damage, a demand of the global South. […]

Nepali Times कार्तिक २०७९

Climate change: Five key takeaways from COP27

1: The biggest win on climate since Paris...? A new funding arrangement on loss and damage - a pooled fund for countries most affected by climate change - has been hailed as a "historic moment". It can be seen as the most important climate advance since the Paris Agreement at COP 2015. For decades the victims of a changing climate were the ghosts the richer world just couldn't see. Money has long been available to cut carbon or help countries adapt to rising temperatures - but there was nothing for those who had lost everything. "For someone who has seen his home disappear in the floods in Pakistan, a solar panel or a sea wall isn't much use," explained Harjeet Singh from the Climate Action Network. The COP27 decision on loss and damage won't fix that immediately. The fund comes with many unknowns. What will be the criteria to trigger a payout? Where will the money come from, and will it be enough? Compare the EU's €60m contribution against the $30bn costs that Pakistan faces. But establishing the loss and damage fund is about more than money or compensation or reparations - it is really about solidarity and rebuilding trust. Despite the dramatic impacts the rising temperatures will inflict on the world, this fund signals that no one will be left behind. It is a concrete demonstration that we really are all in this together. 2: ...Or the biggest loss on climate change since Paris? For many countries, the last hours of the negotiation represent a real step backwards in the fight against rising temperatures. While the loss and damage text represented a big win, the overall cover decision is being seen as a missed opportunity in the fight against climate change. The man who ran the COP26 negotiations in Glasgow put it bluntly. "Emissions peaking before 2025, as the science tells us is necessary. Not in this text," said Alok Sharma. "Clear follow-through on the phase down of coal. Not in this text." As well as all these limitations there was also a sharp U-turn on the language around fossil fuels. The text now includes a reference to "low emission and renewable energy". This is being seen as a significant loophole that could allow for the development of further gas resources, as gas produces less emissions than coal. 3: The spirit of 1.5C is strong, even if the text is weak There's a fifty-fifty chance over the next five years that we'll go over this important marker of temperature increases, compared to pre-industrial times. We're likely to pass it permanently by 2031. But at COP27, the EU and other developed countries were willing to die on the hill of strengthening the promise to keep 1.5C alive. Their efforts were ultimately in vain as the cover text failed to include a reference to the phasing out of all fossil fuels, seen as a necessary advance on last year's decision to phase down the use of coal. "I wish we got fossil fuel phase out," said Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, the Climate Envoy of the Marshall Islands, who along with other island states fear annihilation if temperatures rise above 1.5C. "The current text is not enough. But we've shown with the loss and damage fund that we can do the impossible. So we know we can come back next year and get rid of fossil fuels once and for all." There's a deep sense of solidarity by the richer nations with the island states on this issue of keeping below 1.5C Faith in the threshold has also become a key differential between the US, EU and other richer countries and China, which is markedly less concerned about the goal. While the world will undoubtedly be a better place the closer we stay to the 1.5C guiderail, belief in the ideal is also a political and economic bridge to the developing world. So even as the science and the COP process falter on 1.5C, expect the diplomatic attachment to grow stronger in the coming years. 4: The fossil fuel industry has finally come out of the shadows One key takeaway from COP27 was the presence and power of fossil fuel - be they delegates or countries. Attendees connected to the oil and gas industry were everywhere. Some 636 were part of country delegations and trade teams. The crammed pavilions felt at times like a fossil fuel trade fair. This influence was clearly reflected in the final text. Demands from India and others for all fossil fuels to be phased down didn't survive, despite the backing of the EU and many other countries rich and poor. Many African countries were also keen to use the COP as a platform to promote new oil and gas initiatives in their countries. "The fact that the outcome only talks about 'phase-down of unabated coal power' is a disaster for Africa and for the climate," said Babawale Obayanju, from Friends of the Earth Africa. "We don't need more gas extraction in Africa, devastating our communities for the benefit of rich countries and corporations. What we needed from COP27 was agreement to a rapid, equitable phase out of all fossil fuels." That battle will resume at COP28 in Dubai. 5: Democracy really matters for the climate The undoubted darling of the COP was Brazil's president-elect Luiz Ignacio Lula Da Silva. Just as he did in Copenhagen in 2009, Lula electrified the conference with his promise of zero deforestation by 2030. More than his commitment to the Amazon, Lula restored people's faith in the power of the ballot box to solve the climate problem. So too, in his un-showy way did President Biden. The retention of the Senate by the Democrats most likely ensures that his Inflation Reduction Act will not be overturned or watered down. At a stroke it puts the United States' carbon cutting goal for 2030 within reach. The affirmation that democracy is an effective weapon against climate change was also demonstrated in the actions of the host country. With security and surveillance everywhere, the conference took place in an atmosphere best described as barely restrained intolerance. As well as the ongoing troubles over human rights, the Egyptian hosts paid scant attention to basic functional needs of a conference such as food, drink and decent wifi. When push came to shove, there was a distinct lack of empathy from negotiators for the presidency. This really mattered in the final showdown. COP27 could have been a major advance against climate change. That it ultimately didn't hit that mark is at least partly down to the hosts. (with inputs from BBC)

Ratopati English कार्तिक २०७९

Countries adopt COP27 deal with 'loss and damage' fund

Countries adopted a hard-fought final agreement at the COP27 climate summit early on Sunday that sets up a fund to help poor countries being battered by climate disasters - but does not boost efforts to tackle the emissions causing them.

The Rising Nepal कार्तिक २०७९

In final week of COP27 climate talks, success hinges on 'loss and damage'

This year's COP27 climate summit in Egypt headed into its final week on Monday with nearly 200 countries racing to strike a deal to steer the world towards cutting planet-warming emissions and scale up finance for countries being ravaged by climate impacts.

The Rising Nepal आश्विन २०७९

At COP27, climate ‘loss and damage’ funding makes it on the table

The agreement to put funding to address “loss and damage” on the negotiating agenda came amid sustained pressure from small island states and other vulnerable nations.

The Kathmandu Post आश्विन २०७९

COP27 puts climate compensation on agenda for first time

Delegates at the U.N.'s COP27 climate summit in Egypt agreed to discuss whether rich nations should compensate poor countries most vulnerable to climate change for their suffering. "This creates for the first time an institutionally stable space on the formal agenda of COP and the Paris Agreement to discuss the pressing issue of funding arrangements needed to deal with existing gaps, responding to loss and damage," COP27 president Sameh Shoukry told the opening plenary.

The Rising Nepal आश्विन २०७९

COP27: 'Watershed moment' as UN climate summit begins

Nov 6: More than 120 world are leaders heading to the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. About 30,000 people will attend the two-week summit, known as COP27, though some activists are staying away over concerns about Egypt's rights record. The past year has seen extreme weather regularly linked to climate change. The summit will open with welcome speeches from the UN's new climate change chief, Simon Stiell, and Egyptian Foreign Affairs Minister and COP27 President-Designate Sameh Shoukry. Mr Stiell was previously a senior government official in Grenada, the low-lying Caribbean nation where climate change is an existential threat. Mr Shoukry said last week that the conference would be "the world's watershed moment on climate action". There will also be key addresses from diplomats and scientists including Hoesung Lee, chair of the IPCC, the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change. COP27 will really begin in earnest on Monday with a World Leaders' Summit, when heads of state and government leaders deliver five-minute addresses outlining what they want from the meeting. At the last climate summit, in Glasgow last year, there were powerful speeches from people like Barbadian PM Mia Mottley, who told an enrapt audience that temperature rises of "two degrees is a death sentence" for island nations. World leaders will speak on Monday and Tuesday, and once they depart, conference delegates get down to the business of negotiation. At last year's COP26 summit in Glasgow a number of pledges were agreed: -to "phase down" the use of coal - one of the most polluting fossil fuels -to stop deforestation by 2030 -to cut methane emissions by 30% by 2030 -to submit new climate action plans to the UN Mr Stiell has called for this summit to be focused on turning last year's pledges into action and "get moving on the massive transformation that must take place". All of that will come down to money. Developing nations - which are at the forefront of climate change - are demanding that previous commitments to finance are upheld. But they also want there to be discussion on "loss and damage" finance - money to help them cope with the losses they are already facing from climate change rather than just to prepare for future impacts. This would be the first time the issue has been put on the formal agenda of a COP summit. The urgency of the climate change issue has been evident during the past 12 months with devastating flooding in Pakistan as well as in places including Nigeria and extreme heat in India and Europe in the summer. Ahead of the conference a series of major climate reports were released outlining progress on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The UNEP emissions gap report concluded that there was "no credible pathway" to keep the rise in global temperatures below the key threshold of 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels. This 1.5 degree limit was agreed back in 2015 in the Paris Agreement at the 21st UN Climate Summit, COP21. All subsequent climate summits have focused on developing actions to achieve this goal. As well as all the formal negotiations there will be hundreds of events over the two weeks with exhibitions, workshops and cultural performances from youth, business groups, indigenous societies, academia, artists and fashion communities from all over the world. Protests - which are normally a vibrant feature of COP summits - are likely to be subdued. Egypt's President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, in power since 2014, has overseen a widespread crackdown on dissent. Rights groups estimate the country has had as many as 60,000 political prisoners, many detained without trial. Mr Shoukry has said that space would be set aside in Sharm el-Sheikh for protests to take place. However, Egyptian activists have told the BBC that many local groups had been unable to register for the conference.

Ratopati English आश्विन २०७९

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