A New Climate Change Loss and Damage Fund Established at U.N. Climate Change Conference
The 27th United Nations (U.N.) Climate Change Conference (COP27) was supposed to end on Friday, but it ran overtime this past weekend closing at dawn on Sunday. The delay was largely caused by a huge fight among negotiators over whether to set up a new fund financed by rich countries to pay poor countries what amounts to climate change reparations. The new fund would pay poor countries for loss and damage stemming from man-made climate change.
In the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, Article 8 recognizes “the importance of averting, minimizing and addressing loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change including extreme weather events and slow onset events.” In the climate change context, the term “loss and damage” describes the manifestation of climate change impacts that are not or cannot be avoided by adaptation (e.g., building infrastructure) and mitigation efforts (e.g., reducing greenhouse emissions). Extreme weather events include heat waves and flooding, while slow onset events encompass sea level rise and ocean acidification.
Despite the fact that a side agreement to the Paris Agreement states that Article 8 “does not involve or provide a basis for any liability or compensation,” rich countries have long worried that creating a new U.N. bureaucracy dedicated to loss and damage financing would do exactly that.
Nevertheless, the rich countries relented this weekend, and COP27 decided to “establish new funding arrangements for assisting developing countries, especially those that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change.” The new loss and damage funding arrangements will focus on “mobilizing new and additional resources.”
So what new and additional financial resources may be mobilized? The decision includes “identifying and expanding sources of funding.” Frans Timmerm
Article from Reason.com