Hopes of a breakthrough emerged on Saturday at the Cop27 with its Egyptian presidency proposing the creation of a loss and demand finance facility at the climate conference, with the details to be worked out later.
The development was broadly in tune with the developing countries’ demand for a new fund to compensate them for the loss and damage caused by climate change. The onus is now on the developed countries to accept or reject the proposal, which relates to the thorniest issue at the conference.
The statement acknowledged “the urgent and immediate need for new, additional, predictable and adequate financial resources to assist developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change in responding to economic and non-economic loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change, including extreme weather events and slow onset events....”
The statement suggested that the details of the funding be finalised during Cop28 in November-December next year, and stressed the establishment of “institutional arrangements, modalities, structure, governance and terms of reference of the fund”.
It proposed establishing “a transitional committee on the operationalisation of the new funding arrangements for responding to loss and damage”. The draft also spoke of addressing the gaps in “the current landscape of... addressing loss and damage... including the types of gap, such as relating to speed, eligibility, adequacy and access to finance, noting that these may vary depending on the challenge, such as climate-related emergencies, sea level rise, displacement, relocation, migration, insufficient climate information and data, or the need for climate-resilient reconstruction and recovery”.
It invited stakeholders to submit by February 15 their views on the topics for, and the structure of, the Second Glasgow Dialogue and the workshops before Cop28. The draft of the overall text is also out. But the loss and damage funding facility has been left out of it for negotiations.
