At around 1 pm on Saturday afternoon, the Egyptian presidency published a long-awaited new draft of the final text at the COP27 climate summit in Sharm-el-Sheikh. This shows that loss and damage still remain the thorny issue in the negotiations. That is the only place in the eleven-page text for which a placeholder has been included. There is also no trace of the phasing out of all fossil fuels in the new text.
Loss and damage – ‘loss and damage’ in UN jargon – was officially on the agenda of the climate summit for the first time this year. But it soon became clear that this would be the Achilles’ heel of the negotiations. Rich countries were not inclined to come up with money to cover the damage and losses already suffered in poorer countries.
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A draft was then published late on Thursday evening listing three options: an immediate support fund, one to be elaborated at the next climate summit in the United Arab Emirates, or the rather vague “new and improved financing arrangements”. These should therefore be worked out at the next climate summit at the end of next year.
Shortly after noon on Saturday, the Presidency also published – in parallel with the new version of the final text – a new proposal on loss and damage. This refers to the establishment of a fund specifically for loss and damage. The precise modalities should then be worked out by the next COP28 climate summit in the United Arab Emirates.
Triple climate finance by 2025
It is also striking that the text does not mention the phasing out of all fossil fuels, a point that is being pushed by the European Union and India, among others. The text still only refers to a phase-out of coal, as at the previous COP26 climate summit in Glasgow.
Finally, in the new version of the final text, it is striking that development banks are reminded of their responsibilities. For example, they are urged to triple climate financing by 2025 and to do so with a range of instruments, “including loans, sureties and non-debt related instruments, without increasing the debt burden”.
It remains to be seen how the new proposals will be received by the various parties.
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