In final week of COP27 climate talks, success hinges on ‘loss and damage’

In final week of COP27 climate talks, success hinges on ‘loss and damage’

SHARM EL SHEIKH, Egypt - This year's COP27 climate summit in Egypt headed into its final week on Monday with nearly 200 countries racing to strike a deal to steer the world towards cutting planet-warming emissions and scale up finance for countries being ravaged by climate impacts.

Some negotiators and observers warn that failure to agree on such "loss and damage" funding could sour the U.N. talks and thwart other deals. The issue has leapt to the top of political priorities at COP27 after more than 130 developing counties successfully demanded it was added to the agenda for the first time.

Following a first week of talks that left much unresolved – and featured speeches from dozens of world leaders, but scant announcements of new funding or pledges to cut emissions faster – negotiators now face a mammoth list of items on which to clinch deals by Friday.

"It's all constructive, but I don't think it's come through as responding with the transformational urgency that people expect," said Tom Evans, a policy analyst for the E3G non-profit think tank, of commitments announced at COP27 so far.

Announcements so far include a few hundred million dollars of funding for poorer nations pledged by Germany, Austria,