COP27: India welcomes “Loss and Damage Fund”, calls it historic decision that world waited too long

Sharm El-Sheikh: Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav has termed the decision of COP27 to set up ‘Loss and Damage’ fund as “historic” and said that the world has waited far too long for this.

“It is a historic COP where agreement has been secured for loss and damage funding arrangements including setting up a loss and damage fund,” he said, while addressing the presidency at the Plenary of the 27th session of the Conference of Parties (COP 27) of the UNFCCC was held on Sunday at Sharm El-Sheikh.

Following tense negotiations that ran all mid-night, the countries at  United Nations COP27 climate summit in Egypt adopted a final agreement that established a fund to help the poor country to cope with climate change.

“We congratulate you on your untiring efforts to evolve consensus” Bhupender Yadav said.

“We also welcome the inclusion of transition to sustainable lifestyles and sustainable patterns of consumption and production in our efforts to address climate change in the cover decision,” he said.

Yadav further added, “We note that we are establishing a4 year work program on climate action in agriculture and food security. Agriculture, the mainstay of livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers, will be hard hit from climate change. So, we should not burden them with mitigation responsibilities”.

He said that Developing countries need independence in their choice of energy mix, and in achieving the SDGs

“Developed countries taking the lead in climate action is therefore a very important aspect of the global just transition” Yadav added.

Sameh Shoukry, the Egyptian foreign minister and president of the Cop27 UN climate summit in Egypt, said: “We rose to the occasion. We worked around the clock, day and night, but united in working for one gain, one higher purpose, one common goal. In the end we delivered. We listened to the calls of anguish and despair.”

Sherry Rehman climate change minister of Pakistan where suffering in record floods in September became emblematic of the devastation developing countries are facing hailed the “historic” loss and damage deal to applause in the conference hall.

“This is not about accepting charity,” she said. “This is a down payment on investment in our futures, and in climate justice.”

Simon Stiell, the UN climate chief, told exhausted delegates as the gavel was brought down on the final deal at 7am, after an all-night negotiating session, “It wasn’t easy at all. But this outcome will benefit the most vulnerable around the world.”

Loss and Damage fund was the most contentious issue at the conference and has been a long-running demand by developing countries since 1992.

For nearly two weeks, the EU and the US refused demands from poor countries for a new fund to address loss and damage, arguing that existing funds should be redirected for the purpose.

Early on Friday morning, the EU made a U-turn, to agree to a fund on condition that big economies and big emitters still classed as developing countries under the UNFCCC rules, which date back to 1992, should be included as potential donors, and excluded as recipients.

However, it is likely to take at least a year, until the next climate conference of the parties in United Arab Emirates in November 2023, to sort through some of the details of how the fund can work.