By Kate Patterson
Last year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP) ended with frustration over failed financial management and resistance from many countries to hold themselves accountable for the consequences of climate change. Several climate conferences have discussed how to appropriately allocate financial responsibilities according to emission contributions, but, for years, the proposals have been struck down by wealthy countries looking to avoid accountability for their own large contributions of greenhouse gasses. Funds to assist developing countries in adapting to the changing environment have also been severely limited, leaving millions of people without the aid they desperately need. The international community frequently fails to support countries disproportionately affected by climate change, and wealthy countries continue to emit dangerous levels of CO2 without repercussions. However, there is hope for dismantling these trends, as nearly 200 countries decided upon a loss and damage fund at COP27.
COP27 was held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, from November 6th to November 20th. The conference addressed various goals relating to mitigation, adaptation, finance, and the collaboration of combatting the global climate crisis. Many decisions were reached at the conference, such as preventing the global temperature from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial standards, cutting carbon emissions, and making plans for adapting to current changes in the climate. Yet, the most pertinent agreement that arose from discussions is the loss and damage fund.
Loss and damage refer to the detrimental effects of climate change, including natural disasters, rising sea levels, increasing temperatures, acidification of oceans, and other issues related to climate degradation. For years, countries have agreed that loss and damages have detrimental consequences around the world and have responded by setting goals to eradicate their causes. However, this is the first time that a specific fund for addressing loss and damage was created to assist countries most vulnerable to its effects.
Though the financing for the fund will come from developed countries and various public and private international organizations, the main goal is to expand the sources of funding beyond these actors At the conference, the EU and the U.S. argued that to further this ambition, developing countries that emit large amounts of pollution to the atmosphere should contribute more money towards the fund. However, this argument was met with disputes from China, Saudi Arabia, and other Gulf states that argued they should not adhere to this responsibility. Eventually, the deal settled on allowing developing countries to decide whether they want to donate. Agreeing to such a decision is a large failure of the fund, as some developing countries are among the highest polluters in the world. Although China has said that it is open to making contributions, the pertinent issue is getting the country to commit to a definitive amount of donations. Doing so will show that the world’s highest emitter of greenhouse gases is willing to take ambitious accountability for its portion of loss and damages.
Countries that will receive the funds are those that are most severely affected by climate change. Among the most vulnerable to loss and damage are states that are witnessing millions of people in need of humanitarian aid and thousands experiencing displacement, such as Burundi, Somalia, and Mozambique. However, the difficult aspect of the loss and damage fund is assessing how it will be appropriately implemented. Those in charge of the fund will need to discuss how loss and damage will be assessed, decide exactly how much money will be given to each country, and manage how finances are being used.
To help oversee these issues, countries agreed to create a “transitional committee," of which 14 of the 24 members will be from developing nations The committee will allocate chairs to each region, which will provide room for diverse perspectives and solutions, allowing each region to outline the funding and types of aid they need most. Additionally, developing countries on the committee will be able to hold developed countries responsible for their actions and urge them to commit an appropriate amount of funding.
Even though countries agreed to let the committee make budget recommendations, a large issue will be forcing countries to follow through with them. Another challenge is that the finances must be approved by the parties, as the committee is assigned to set budgets for each country at COP28. The international community has previously encountered this issue with the 2030 goals initiated at the Paris Agreement, as no G20 country is currently on track to meet agreed-upon emission levels. However, smaller, developing countries are on track to meet the agreement, while the largest, and most crucial, emitters are falling short of their promises.
The loss and damage fund has its faults, yet it is an imperative step for combatting climate change’s adverse effects on the world. As countries experience increasingly severe weather events and threatening changes to their environment, they are left with billions of dollars of debt from the need to fix broken infrastructure and house thousands of internally displaced people. While COP has made efforts to cut emissions and prevent worsening climate change, it has disregarded the serious impact of loss and damage. With the loss and damage fund, there is finally hope that countries suffering the most from climate change will finally be given reparations for their disproportionate suffering and that the international community will hold those most responsible for climate change accountable
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