Facts: UN climate conference
The UN climate summit COP27 is held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, November 6-18. Then representatives from all over the world gather to discuss and negotiate how the global climate work under the Paris Agreement is to be implemented.
In the Paris Agreement of 2015, most of the world’s countries agreed to keep the increase in the global average temperature well below 2 degrees, and most preferably below 1.5 degrees, compared to pre-industrial times.
But the countries’ plans to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases are far from sufficient to limit warming to 1.5 degrees, according to a compilation that the UN climate secretariat UNFCCC has made of all climate plans ahead of the meeting. If the plans are followed, the world is instead headed for around 2.5 degrees of warming before the end of the century.
About two million destroyed homes. 24,000 schools, 1,500 healthcare facilities and 13,000 kilometers of road. It must be repaired or replaced after “a monsoon on steroids” swept across Pakistan, claiming at least 1,700 lives. The bill is expected to land at around 30 billion dollars – which shines a light on one of the major issues of contention during the upcoming COP27 climate summit in Egypt.
Who will pay the price for the consequences of climate change? Are the countries that have gotten rich by burning fossil fuels to foot the bill in compensation for the damage their emissions disproportionately inflict on less developed countries?
For Pakistan, which accounts for only 0.8 percent of the world’s total emissions, the answer is simple. Climate Minister Sherry Rehman believes that the blame for the disaster lies with the rich countries’ emissions and that it is now time for them to open their wallets further. At a press conference, she receives support from ministerial colleague Ahsan Iqbal:
— People enjoy life in the West, but someone here has to pay the price.
Losses and damages
Rich countries have previously agreed to contribute money to help poorer countries reduce emissions and adapt infrastructure for the future climate. So far, however, the promise of $100 billion a year in so-called climate finance has not been fully delivered – which has fueled distrust in the climate negotiations.
But many vulnerable countries are also pushing the issue of compensation for losses and damages (“loss and damage” in the climate context) that occur as a result of heat waves, torrential rains, hurricanes and droughts already now.
— Climate adaptation and emission reductions are still important, but they are yesterday’s problems, says Professor Saleemul Huq, director of the International Center for Climate Change and Development in Bangladesh.
— We have entered a new era of loss and damage due to human-caused climate change. People are losing their lives, their homes, their crops and their infrastructure and it’s happening here and now.
Controversial issue
The question of who should foot the bill for losses and damages as a result of climate change is sensitive and controversial. Rich countries shy away from anything that smacks of reparations for fear of being faced with a never-ending barrage of massive payment demands. At last year’s climate summit in Glasgow, the US and the EU rejected demands for a special fund to compensate poorer countries for losses and damage. Instead, the most climate-vulnerable countries were allowed to go home with a promise of a loosely defined “dialogue” on the subject.
— We have failed to reduce emissions so that we have major climate changes and we have failed to adapt our societies because we have had too little focus on that issue. Losses and damage then occur, says Mathias Fridahl, researcher in climate policy at Linköping University, to TT.
— There are different requirements, ideas and perspectives, but it is mainly the poor countries that want to link it to a form of financial compensation.
Scientific support
Egypt has promised that losses and injuries will be properly addressed at the meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh, pointing to the problem that the issue is often lost in endless discussions. But no breakthrough in terms of a new channel for funding is to be expected from the UN meeting where decisions are made by consensus, according to Fridahl.
“Science is getting better at making connections between climate change and extreme weather, which makes it easier for countries that want to bring the issue forward to say that there is a responsibility for those who have caused climate change to do something about losses and damage,” he says.
— But the rich countries very clearly want to decouple the issue from the idea of a fund or some form of obligation to compensate in proportion to the losses and damages that occur.
Mathias Fridahl, climate scientist at Linköping University.