COP27 Adopts Final Statement Urging 'Rapid' Emissions Cuts After Consensus On 'Loss And Damage' Fund

Earlier in the day, the COP27 approved the creation of a special fund to cover the losses suffered by vulnerable nations hit by the impact of global warming

File Photo: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivers a speech at an event launch for the climate TRACE initiative during the COP27 climate conference at the Sharm el-Sheikh International Convention Centre, in Egypt's Red Sea resort city

Source : AFP

New Delhi: The United Nations' COP27 climate summit on Sunday adopted a final statement urging 'rapid' emissions cuts, news agency AFP reported.

Earlier in the day, it approved the creation of a special fund to cover the losses suffered by vulnerable nations hit by the impact of global warming.

As per AFP, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that  COP27 has failed to deliver a plan to 'drastically reduce emissions'.

The creation of the special fund will address loss and damage, a term used for irreparable destruction caused by climate change-fuelled disasters.

The UN published an updated draft of the proposed deal for the climate summit in Egypt on Saturday. It makes no mention of the need to phase down all fossil fuels, one of the key demands this year, and reiterates the Glasgow Pact language on coal.   

The success of the talks hinged on a separate loss and damage fund, the primary demand for COP27 from developing nations.

The deal, however, is part of the larger agreement, voted on by negotiators from nearly 200 countries. 

According to news agency PTI, experts said no reference to oil and natural gas -- on which developed countries depend -- in the text is not in the interest of climate action and makes it convenient for the fossil fuel lobby to press ahead. They expected COP27 to give a better message.

The overarching decision document leaves out India's call for phasing down all fossil fuels and not just coal. It instead refers to the phasedown of unabated coal power and phase-out of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies, making no progress from the deal struck a year ago.

The call for phasing down all fossil fuels, the COP's second-most discussed new element, didn't find a place in the draft text despite most developing countries and some developed nations, including the US and the EU, supporting it.

The document reaffirms the Paris Agreement temperature goal of holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels -- the same language was used in the deal last year in Glasgow, the UK.

PTI reported experts as saying that it was ironic that the rich nations which claim to be fighting for "keeping 1.5 degree Celsius alive" have plans for massive oil and gas production expansion.  The climate talks this year are being held in the shadow of the Russian aggression in Ukraine and the related energy crisis which has strained the capabilities of countries to urgently tackle climate change. A successful outcome will reinforce the global resolve to fight climate change. 

(With Agency Inputs)