COP27: climate conference is marked by discussions on loss and damage financing on the agenda

From Cenarium Magazine (*)

MANAUS – The COP27, United Nations (UN) conference on climate change, dubbed as the “COP of implementation”, started this Sunday, 6, in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, marked by discussions that would lead to the materialization of the insertion of financing for damages in the official agenda of the event. The development regarding the theme is considered an essential point for the success of the current COP.

The inclusion was already expected at the beginning of the work of COP27, but, even so, the representatives of the States went into the early hours of Saturday to Sunday discussing the details of the inclusion of loss and damage in the agenda. It is the first time that the financing associated with the theme officially enters the agenda of a COP.

On the first day of the conference, the issue was widely treated as a victory. COP27 president Sameh Shoukry, who is a foreign minister under the dictatorial regime of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, spoke of a Herculean effort of consultations among countries in the previous 48 hours.

“It is an issue recognized by most of the international community as fundamental”, Shoukry said at a press conference after the official opening of COP27.

“The issue of loss and damage needs to be properly addressed, and the time has come for us to do so. Countries, especially the most vulnerable and least developed, need to receive the support they need to meet their climate goals. Money is the critical issue to address the magnitude of the crisis”, said Simon Stiel, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, who, at the opening ceremony, cited the suffering of communities due to the effects of the climate crisis.

Despite the fact that on the first day of the COP a victorious speech on the inclusion of funding for loss and damage has already been made, this is only a basic initial step for the current climate conference. It is worth remembering that the event takes place in Africa, in the global South, which makes the issue of climate finance even more latent.

Basically, the negotiations have gone very slowly without formalizing the discussions about money for damages. And the call for funding exclusively for this purpose is not new.

There has already been an official debate on the subject at COP26 in Glasgow, starting with the Glasgow Dialogue, which raised discussions about financing mechanisms in 2022 “thinking” about their glaring responsibility in the climate catastrophes that affect other nations – especially the most vulnerable ones.

A connection between these ideas could result in exorbitant amounts.

It must not be forgotten, moreover, that there is a haze of mistrust between developed and developing countries. After all, the long-standing promise to make US$100 billion a year in climate finance available to developing countries by 2020 has not materialized.

Despite the victory speech on the first day, it is also important to remember that it was only decided to include the financing issue in the COP agenda. There must be a tug-of-war between the types of actions possible for the current moment.

The developed countries will probably try to push the actual decisions about financing mechanisms to 2024 – remember the crisis period that the world is going through due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which impacted European energy issues and finances around the globe, not to mention security, considering the several mentions that Russian president Vladimir Putin made about nuclear weapons.

The developing countries should try to get something more concrete out of COP27 – remember the devastating effects of the climate crisis, such as the massive flood in Pakistan that killed more than a thousand people and impacted the lives of millions.

Unfinished business

It wasn’t only COP27’s agenda that suffered from the delay. On the first day of the conference, the physical structure of the event itself is yet to be finalized. Several country and organization stands were still being adjusted, despite the fact that part of the public was already circulating in the corridors.

The delay is due to the strong security and surveillance scheme surrounding the COP27 in Egypt, which led to delays in shipments of raw materials. At the last minute, people responsible for setting up the stands were even disqualified.

The official Brazilian stand, which also hosts several national sector organizations, such as CNI (National Confederation of Industry) and CNA (Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock), was one of those that was still trying to get properly organized.

Videos and data about Brazil’s energy potential cover the entire front of the large stand built by the Jair Bolsonaro government. The focus there is the country’s capacity in the area of green energy.

At the same time, there is almost no attention to the Amazon or other national biomes. In a corner next to the entrance of the stand, which is surrounded by pieces of sugar cane painted green -as are several walls of the place-, there is an area for an “Amazon experience”. Green leaves also decorate part of the external area of the stand.

Curiously, the official area of the Brazilian government is next to the (comparatively smaller) stand of the Legal Amazon Consortium, a group created by the region’s governors at the beginning of Bolsonaro’s mandate. With the group, the Amazonian governors sought the possibility of bypassing the federal government in order to seek international funding – after all, Brazil’s environmental image was extremely compromised during the current administration.

A few steps ahead is the third Brazilian space at COP27, the Brazil Climate Action Hub, a national civil society stand.

(*) With information from Folhapress