Climate fund breakthrough offers ‘hope’

Climate fund breakthrough offers ‘hope’

SHARM EL-SHEIKH: COP27 host Egypt scrambled to salvage UN climate talks Saturday with the European Union signaling a breakthrough over the contentious issue of “loss and damage” funding for climate vulnerable nations. Nearly 200 countries’ representatives have gathered at the COP27 in Egypt for two weeks with the aim of driving forward action to fight climate change as the world faces a worsening onslaught of weather extremes.

But the talks stalled over the terms under which wealthy polluters provide “loss and damage” funding for countries wracked by climate disasters, as well as over ratcheting up ambition in tackling global warming. After the European Union roundly rejected a document shown by Egypt overnight, a source from the bloc said at least the loss and damage issue was “agreed” as far as it was concerned.

A European source confirmed “a deal has been reached on loss and damage which targets the fund to vulnerable countries”. A draft document on creating a specific loss and damage fund was published by the Egyptian presidency on Saturday. It takes some language from three earlier proposals – from the EU, Britain and the G77 and China bloc of 134 developing nations – and appears to kick some of