COP 27 breakthrough, but still miles to go

The agreement for global fund sends a message to all those states which contribute to climate destruction that they can no longer go scot-free but will have now to pay up for the damages they cause.

The 27th edition of the United Nations Conference of the Parties, held in Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt, achieved a major breakthrough with an agreement to set up a global loss and damage (L&D) fund aimed at compensating the developing countries for the latter's climate change-related loss and damages.

Observers say that the agreement sends a message to all those states which contribute to climate destruction that they can no longer go scot-free but will have now to pay up for the damages they cause. It is well-documented that the ill-effects of the deteriorating world climate are too serious to be overlooked. The need to keep temperatures on our planet from rising beyond 1.5 degree C of pre-industrial levels is urgent.

At the Sharm El-Sheikh conference, the mechanism of the loss and damage fund was proposed by the G77, India being its part, least developed countries and small island states. Initially, the United States and the European Union opposed this idea. Finally, they agreed to a compromise, according to which the climatically "most vulnerable" countries would be prioritized and the talks held for the big emitters among the developing nations to make their contributions to the proposed corpus.

However, there are still miles to go before a global fund comes into being and the world goes really green. The text approved at Sharm El-Sheikh only commits to creating a fund. It is yet to be discussed how the fund is to be set up and who will pay how much to it. Future COP negotiations are to be held for this.

Importantly, the world needs to take substantial steps to go green and keep the planet worth living. For this, the rich, developed nations need to aid the developing ones with the sufficient fund and appropriate technology the latter need. Regrettably, so far, the rich countries have not been serious on this front. They have not delivered on their earlier commitment to provide $100 billion every year by 2020.

The Sharm El-Sheikh agreement estimates that $4 trillion is required every year to meet the renewable energy targets till 2030. The developed countries work hard in this direction. They have been most responsible for the bulk of historical emissions in the world. They are industrially highly advanced now.

They must own their moral responsibility to help the poor nations attain sustainable development.

(Jagdish N. Singh is a senior journalist based in New Delhi. He is also Senior Distinguished Fellow at the Gatestone Institute, New York)

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