At COP27, UN adopts ‘loss and damage’ climate fund in historic move

In a landmark decision, the two-week-long negotiations at the United Nations’ COP27 climate summit came to a close on Sunday as the delegates agreed on an overarching deal for a “loss and damage” fund for providing aid to vulnerable nations battered by the impacts of climate change and global warming.

At the closing plenary session in Sharm el-Sheikh, COP27 president Sameh Shoukry brought the gavel down signifying that a consensus had been reached. The milestone comes three decades after Vanuatu, an island in Oceania, first asked nations to set up an insurance fund to help island countries cope with the rising seas.

Here’s what you need to know about the ‘loss and damage’ climate fund:

1) The deal, a reparation, is a major victory for poorer and developing nations as it gives them the funding they have long called for. A lot of times these countries face the brunt of climate worsened floods, droughts, heat waves, famines and storms despite having contributed little to the pollution that heats up the globe.

2) While it is aimed at the most vulnerable nations in the world, the deal will also leave room for middle-income countries battered by climate disasters that contribute few of the greenhouse gas emissions driving the phenomenon. Meanwhile, the European Union demanded that high emitters and wealthier developing countries like China and India are not beneficiaries but may contribute to the fund.

3) The breakthrough came after a flurry of last-minute negotiations over the increasing toll climate change is exacting from developing nations, highlighting the latest monsoon flooding in Pakistan that left more than 1,700 dead and caused at least $30 billion in losses.

4) However, concerns grew among developed nations that the language put forward by Egypt backtracked on some of the commitments made at last year’s climate conference in Glasgow that aimed at keeping alive the target of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times. The world has already warmed 1.1 degrees Celsius since the mid 19th century.

5) Details are also yet to be worked out about how the loss and damage facility will actually work or the amount of money that will go into it. Now the eyes have turned towards whether the summit will agree on the final statement.