COP27: Climate costs deal struck but no fossil fuel progress

An often fraught UN climate summit wrapped up on Sunday with sweeping agreement on how to tackle global warming and a “historic” deal to create a special fund to cover the damages suffered by vulnerable nations.

The two-week talks, which at times appeared to teeter on the brink of collapse, delivered a major breakthrough on a fund for climate “loss and damage” but left some disappointed over a failure to push further ambition on cutting emissions.

Delegates applauded after the loss and damage fund was adopted as the sun came up Sunday following days of marathon negotiations over the proposal. Collins Nzovu, Zambia’s minister of green economy and environment, said he was “excited, very, very excited.” “This is a very positive result from 1.3 billion Africans,” he told AFP. “Very exciting because for us, success in Egypt was going to be based on what we get from loss and damage.” A final COP27 statement covering the broad array of the world’s efforts to grapple with a warming planet held the line on the aspirational goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels. It also included language on renewable energy for the first time, while reiterating previous calls to accelerate “efforts towards the phasedown of unabated coal power and phase-out of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies”. But that failed to go much further than a similar decision from last year’s meeting in Glasgow on key issues, disappointing observers. “New calls to accelerate deployment of renewable energy were very welcome,” said Ani Dasgupta, head of the World Resources Institute. “But it is mind-boggling that countries did not muster the courage to call for phasing down fossil fuels, which are the biggest driver of climate change.” UN chief Antonio Guterres said the UN climate talks had “taken an important step towards justice” with the loss and damage fund. 
AFP.com, 20 Nov, 2022-
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