Paying for the loss and damage due to the changing climate
The HinduAfter a fortnight of difficult negotiations at the 27th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change — or COP27 — at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, the participating nations agreed to set up a new fund to help developing countries address loss and damage from the severe effects of a changing climate. The Sharm el-Sheikh Implementation Plan recalled the Paris Agreement goals and reiterated that reaching net-zero CO2 emissions calls for a staggering investment of about $4 trillion a year until 2030 in renewable sources of energy, and further $4-6 trillion a year until the end of the decade, for the world to shift to a low-carbon economy. The Sharm el-Sheikh declaration also notes that relative to the needs of developing countries, climate finance flows are less than a third of the required annual quantum to keep global temperature rise well below 2oC or at 1.5oC, and in 2019–20 stood at an estimated $803 billion. Some of the criticism from climate activists this year at Sharm el-Sheikh was about lack of freedom to organise protests in Egypt, high visibility at the conference for countries with deep interests in fossil fuels, a sharp increase in nuclear energy companies trying to promote their offerings using the event as an exhibition, and the incremental nature of the COP negotiations on what is now seen as an existential crisis.