Page 7 - AsiaElec Week 47 2022

AsiaElec CLIMATE CHANGE AsiaElec

COP27: “Loss and damage”

fund to be created, but no

phase-out of fossil fuels

ASIA IN a historic step at COP27, negotiators from Reparations, or compensation, were not
nearly 200 countries at the UN summit in Egypt included, sources told CNN.
agreed to establish a “loss and damage” fund The fund’s backers say that the developed
to help developing countries cope with climate world has benefitted from emissions-causing
mitigation. economic activity and therefore should pay for
The representatives also agreed that the world its impacts.
must halve emissions by 2030 and keep global New Zealand’s climate minister, James Shaw,
warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to told the BBC of “strong attempts by the petrol
pre-industrial levels. Renewable energy is seen states to roll back” agreements, but that devel-
as a key to reducing emissions. oped countries “held the line”. Members of the
But there was no agreement to phase out G20 and New Zealand have been keen to reduce
climate-damaging fossil fuels, despite much the impact of fossil fuels.
pressure from environmental groups. “A clear “It is more than frustrating to see overdue
commitment to phase-out all fossil fuels? Not steps on mitigation and the phase-out of fossil
in this text,” said Alok Sharma, a UK negotiator energies being stonewalled by a number of large
and president of the previous COP26 meeting emitters and oil producers,” German Foreign
in Glasgow. Minister Annalena Baerbock said in a statement.
The loss and damage fund – for disasters such The ‘stonewallers’ included China, India and
as flooding and drought – had been advocated Saudi Arabia.
by poorer countries for three decades. It has yet The summit’s final text – as at COP26 – called
to be funded, and had been met with resistance for less reliance on coal, and a “phase-out of inef-
from major economies such as the US and EU, ficient fossil fuel subsidies.”
which feared an endless need as well as lawsuits.

Week 47 22•November•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P7