Cop27 deadlocked over loss and damage issue with developing countries digging in

The UN global climate talks were deadlocked on Thursday evening on the issue of loss and damage funding for developing countries.

As he returned to Cop27 in Egypt, United Nations secretary general António Guterres said the relationship between developed and developing countries was breaking down.

There was “clearly a breakdown in trust” between the Global North and Global South, he concluded.

Developing countries – who negotiate under the G77 bloc – have sought a loss and damage facility for all states in their grouping, in recognition of their right to supports due to historic and ongoing emissions generated by wealthy countries, while they continue to suffer extreme climate impacts.

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The EU is prepared to consider funding but insisting on a mechanism to target the most vulnerable states.

As the summit attended by more than 190 countries went into its final hours, the impasse was impairing progress on other critical issues including more ambitious emissions reductions and promises on adaptation funding to help countries become more climate resilient.

“This is no time for finger pointing. The blame game is a recipe for mutually assured destruction,” Mr Guterres said. “I am here to appeal to all parties to rise to this moment and to the greatest challenge that humanity is facing. The world is watching and has a simple message to all of us: ‘stand and deliver’.”

He underlined the need for “agreed solutions in front of us – to respond to loss and damage, to close the emissions gap, and to deliver on finance”.

After updating Mr Guterres, Cop27 president Sameh Shoukry, who is leading the negotiations, said: “While progress has been achieved on a large number of issues, it is evidently clear that at this late stage of the Cop27 process, there are still a number of issues where progress remains lacking, with persisting divergent views amongst parties.”

‘Running show of human misery’

He repeated what he told global leaders last week: “The world has become a stage for a continuously running show of human misery and pain. This needs to end now, not tomorrow.”

Negotiating parties expressed disbelief that there was still no proper “draft cover text” to accelerate efforts towards a final decision – and only two of 31 agenda items agreed.

Minister for Climate Eamon Ryan, who is leading the EU side on loss and damage, confirmed the lack of progress but believed a meaningful outcome could still be secured.

“It’s frustrating not just on this loss and damage issue... [but also] the wider failure to close off a lot of what shouldn’t be controversial texts. But we can still do it,” he said at a briefing.

Explaining the EU position, he added: “We want to prioritise, first and foremost, the most vulnerable people on the planet. That’s the critical first principle we need to get right. It has been framed here as a ‘Yes/No, would you agree to a fund?’ But actually the first question is ‘Yes/No, can we support the most vulnerable?’”

The EU was also seeking to bring in new funding sources and a reform of the global financial system to ensure a large volume of funding to provide for loss and damage, he said, “including the likes of the fossil fuel industry making a contribution”.

Large emitting countries under proposals tabled would get an out, Mr Ryan said. “Instead, we want them to play their part. There are the key issues.”

China, Saudi Arabia and US appear opposed to implementation of such a scheme at this stage, said Prof John Sweeney of Maynooth University. “While the EU’s concerns are about the practical details, these other countries appear to be primarily objecting in principal.”

A particular difficulty, he confirmed, was how countries were classified into developed and developing countries for negotiation purposes in 1992, and if such a classification was still fit for purpose.

“Countries such as China and India have rapidly growing economies which now place them in the top league of greenhouse gas emitters. Progress cannot be made on saving the 1.5-degree threshold agreed at Paris without including such countries and they are in fact today often competitors to the likes of the US, EU and Japan,” he said.

These issues would not be finalised at Cop27 but some form of progress was going to be necessary in the final communique to keep developing nations on board, Prof Sweeney said. “The customary Friday brinkmanship evident at Cops may yet materialise and after two overnight sessions, probably extending into Saturday, exhaustion may yet force compromise.”

Pakistan’s climate change minister Sherry Rehman, representing the G77, said negotiations were at a “pivotal moment”. Common ground must be found and a political decision taken this week, she said.

“We are saying give us a political message that we are all willing to take this forward as a community of nations,” she added.

A walkout by countries most vulnerable to climate change impacts was premature, she said. “We’re now in the weeds of negotiations. I don’t walk out of negotiations. I try to work around them.”

Countries including Zambia, Antigua and Uganda are demanding an agreement to establish a new fund which can be tapped to compensate those nations unable to pay to rectify the damage caused by cyclones, floods, droughts and rising seas. Frans Timmermans, the EU’s climate chief, said that could take years and it would be better to use existing facilities.