• UN regrets summit failed to address emissions issue, Egypt says ‘missteps’ were not intentional
• Pakistan welcomes deal as ‘first positive milestone’ towards climate justice

SHARM EL-SHEIKH: A fraught climate summit wrapped up on Sunday with a landmark deal on funding to help vulnerable countries cope with devastating impacts of global warming with Pakistan hailing the outcome as it noted that the UN conference had responded to the “voices of the damaged”.

However, the two-week talks in Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh also underlined anger over a failure to push further ambition on cutting emissions.

The negotiations, which at times appeared to teeter on the brink of collapse, delivered a major breakthrough on a fund for climate “loss and damage”.

Climate Minister Sherry Rehman said the COP27 had “responded to the voices of the vulnerable, the damaged and the lost of the whole world”.

“We have struggled for 30 years on this path, and today in Sharm el-Sheikh this journey has achieved its first positive milestone,” AFP quoted her telling the summit.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif while welcoming the development in a tweet said, “It is up to the transitional committee to build on the historic development”.

At the summit, tired delegates applauded when the loss and damage fund was adopted as the sun came up on Sunday following almost two extra days of negotiations that went round-the-clock. But jubilation over that achievement was countered by stern warnings.

UN chief Antonio Guterres said the climate talks had “taken an imp­ortant step towards justice” with the loss and damage fund, but fell short in pushing for the urgent carbon-cutting needed to tackle global warming.

“Our planet is still in the emergency room,” Guterres said. “We need to drastically reduce emissions now and this is an issue this COP did not address.”

Stonewalled by emitters

A final COP27 statement covering the broad array of the world’s efforts to grapple with a warming planet held the line on the aspirational goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels.

It also included language on renewable energy for the first time, while reiterating previous calls to accelerate “efforts towards the phasedown of unabated coal power and phase-out of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies”.

But that failed to go much further than a similar decision from last year’s COP26 meeting in Glasgow on key issues around cutting planet-heating pollution.

European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans said the EU was “disappointed”, adding that more than 80 nations had backed a stronger emissions pledge.

“What we have in front of us is not enough of a step forward for people and planet,” he said.

“It doesn’t bring enough added efforts from major emitters to increase and accelerate their emission cuts,” said Timmermans, who 24 hours earlier had threatened to walk out of the talks rather than getting a “bad result”.

Britain’s Alok Sharma, who chaired COP26 in Glasgow, said a passage on energy had been “weakened, in the final minutes”.

Germany Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said she was frustrated that the emissions cut and fossil fuel phase-out were “stonewalled by a number of large emitters and oil producers”.

Criticised by some delegations for a lack of transparency during negotiations, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, the COP27 chair, said any missteps were “certainly not intentional”.

“I believe I succeeded in avoiding that any of the parties were to backslide,” he said.

‘Loss and damage’

The deal on loss and damage — which had only barely made it onto the negotiation agenda — gathered critical momentum during the talks.

Developing nations relentlessly pushed for the fund, finally succeeding in getting the backing of wealthy polluters long fearful of open-ended liability.

A statement from the Alliance of Small Island States, comprised of islands whose very existence is threatened by sea level rise, said the loss and damage deal was “historic”.

“The agreements made at COP27 are a win for our entire world,” said Molwyn Joseph, of Antigua and Barbuda and chair of AOSIS.

“We have shown those who have felt neglected that we hear you, we see you, and we are giving you the respect and care you deserve.”

The World Bank estimated that devastating floods in Pakistan this year caused $30 billion in damage and economic loss.

The fund will be geared towards developing nations “that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change” — language that had been requested by the EU.

The Europeans had also wanted to broaden the funder base to cough up cash — code for China and other better-off emerging countries.

The final loss and damage text left many of the thornier questions to be dealt with by a transitional committee, which will report to next year’s climate meeting in Dubai to get the funding operational.

‘Result of climate diplomacy’

Pakistan welcomed the announcement of the setting up of “loss and damage fund”. It’s the “first pivotal step towards the goal of climate justice”, he said in the tweet, adding, “It is up to the transitional committee to build on the historic development”.

He said the development was a “manifestation of excellent climate diplomacy that made this possible”.

Earlier this year, Pakistan was hit by devastating floods that left nearly a third of the country under water, affecting more than 30 million people.

Taking to Twitter, Sherry Rehman said it had been a “long 30-year journey from demand to formation of the loss and damage fund for 134 countries”.

“We welcome today’s announcement and joint text hammered out through many nights. It’s an important first step in reaffirming the core principles of climate justice.”

She said that with the fund being established, Pakistan looked forward “to it being operationalised, to actually become a robust body that is able to answer with agility to the needs of the vulnerable, the fragile and those on the frontline of climate disasters”.

Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari also hailed the “monumental achievement”.

“Having experienced first-hand the scale and devastation of Pakistan’s floods, we travelled to the United Nations General Assembly to advocate for climate justice,” he said in a series of tweets.

“When I chaired Group of 77 at the UN, Pakistan’s proposal was unanimously adopted to demand loss and damage be part of COP27 agenda and in Egypt, we were happy to report that Pakistan’s proposal as G77 chair to include language on loss and damage on the agenda had achieved consensus,”

FM Bilawal went on to say that he also spoke to US climate envoy John Kerry in Egypt and over the phone “once negotiations went into overtime”.

“Appreciated leadership on climate, requested support for G77+ demand on inclusion of financial arrangement to tackle loss and damage. Grateful we were able to reach a compromise,” he said.

He termed the development to be a win for climate justice and the developing world.

The Foreign Office (FO) Pakistan would continue to constructively contribute to global climate change debate, negotiations and action.

Published in Dawn, November 21st, 2022