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What's the article about?
- It talks about the outcomes of the recently concluded UNFCCC Sharm el-Sheikh Climate Change Conference (COP 27).
Relevance:
- GS3: Conservation, Environmental Pollution and Degradation, Environmental Impact Assessment;
- Prelims
What's the crux of the article?
- At the Sharm el-Sheikh Climate Change Conference (COP 27), countries came together to take action towards achieving the world's collective climate goals as agreed under the Paris
- Agreement and the Convention.
- The conference took place from 6-20 November 2022 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
- It is concluded with a historic decision to establish and operationalize a loss and damage fund.
What is COP?
- The “Conference of the Parties” (COP), is the global decision-making body of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
- The 198 countries meet every year to review progress and decide on the path forward.
What were the focus areas at COP27?
- Climate adaptation
- Climate finance
- Climate Justice
What new developments took place at COP27?
- New UN fund launched for “loss and damage”
- There is no agreement yet on how the finance should be provided and where it should come from.
- Countries launched a package of 25 new collaborative actions in five key areas: power, road transport, steel, hydrogen and agriculture.
- A G7-led plan called the Global Shield Financing Facility was launched at COP27 to provide funding to countries suffering climate disasters.
- Important progress was made on forest protection with the launch of the Forest and Climate Leaders’ Partnership, which aims to unite action by governments, businesses and community leaders to halt forest loss and land degradation by 2030.
What is the loss and damage concept?
- The term Loss and Damage is commonly used in reference to international climate negotiations and its surrounding politics.
- It is a priority for many climate-vulnerable countries due to the severe climate effects they are experiencing.
- Loss and damage normally refers to the destructive impacts of climate change that cannot be avoided either by mitigation (avoiding and reducing greenhouse gas emissions) or adaptation (adjusting to current and future climate change impacts).
- It reflects the fact that climate change is already having negative effects on ecosystems, infrastructure and people’s health and livelihoods around the world. However, there is no internationally agreed definition for loss and damage.
- Loss and damage is often divided into economic loss and damage including to livelihoods and property and non-economic loss and damage including loss of life and losses to biodiversity and cultural heritage
Way Forward:
- The long-awaited Loss and Damage Fund's establishment is a positive beginning, but all the major emitters—developed and developing nations—should cooperate to make it work successfully.
