COP27 Diary: UN's Climate Draft, Global Methane Pledge, 'Debt-For-Nature' Deals And More

COP27: The UN published a first draft of a hoped-for final agreement, and repeated many of the goals set at COP26. However, the draft leaves contentious issues yet to be resolved

COP27: The 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference is nearing its end, but negotiators remained far apart on key issues a day before the deadline to agree upon a strong climate deal. The UN published a first draft of a hoped-for final agreement, and repeated many of the goals set at COP26. However, the draft leaves contentious issues yet to be resolved, news agency Reuters reported. On Thursday, more than 150 countries signed the 'Global Methane Pledge', the goal of which is to reduce methane emissions. 

Here are the top developments from the climate summit on November 17:

COP27: UN's Climate Deal Draft

The UN climate agency's first draft of a hoped-for climate agreement is a 20-page document labelled a non-paper. This indicates that the draft is far from a final version and there are still hours if not days left in the negotiations between delegates from nearly 200 countries, a Reuters report said. 

The climate deal draft repeats the goal from the Glasgow Climate Pact to "accelerate measures towards the phase down of unabated coal power and phase out and rationalise inefficient fossil fuel subsidies", but does not call for a phase down of all fossil fuels, as India and the European Union had requested. 

Moreover, the draft does not include details for launching a 'loss and damage' fund, a key demand made by the most climate vulnerable countries, such as island nations. Rather, the draft "welcomes" the fact that the topic was taken up as part of this year's official agenda. 

A negotiator from an island nation, who asked not to be named, said he was "underwhelmed" by the draft text and its "silence on the critical issue of loss and damage".

Also, the draft gives no timeline on deciding whether a separate fund should be created or what it should look like. 

COP27: Global Methane Pledge

More than 150 countries joined the Global Methane Pledge on Thursday to reduce methane emissions. This is 50 more than the number of countries that joined the pact when it was launched last year, the United States and EU said Thursday, Reuters reported.

The initiative aims to cut methane emissions by 30 per cent by this decade. This feat is important to limit the warming of Earth to 1.5 degrees Celsius. 

John Kerry, US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, said that China and India, the top two methane emitters, as well as Russia, have not signed up for the pact. 

COP27: Debt-For-Nature Deals

The Galapagos Islands are worth around $800 million, judging by the size of a "debt-for-nature" swap deal that could see Ecuador's debts cut in exchange for protecting its offshore territory's fragile ecosystem, according to people at COP27 who have knowledge of the talks. 

One of the recurring topics being discussed at the UN Climate Summit is who will pay the bill for the global fight against biodiversity loss and climate change. Debt-for-nature swap deals may help address this problem. 

Simon Zadek, executive director at NatureFinance, which advises governments on debt-for-nature swap deals and other deals focused on climate finance, said there is now a big push to get nature into sovereign debt markets, according to a Reuters report. 

Zadek hinted at the fact that nature-rich countries look like ideal debt swap candidates following big drops in their bond prices this year. 

While Ecuador is not among the world's richest nations, it does have a wealth of diversity that it could leverage in a wider region where much of the wildlife has been wiped out. 

If a deal of refinancing $800 million of Ecuador's debt is reached, in exchange for conservation efforts, it would be the biggest debt-for-nature swap struck to date.

COP27: Climate Summit Must Establish 'Loss And Damage' Funds, Vulnerable Nations Say

Ministers representing vulnerable nations said Thursday that the 27th UN Climate Change Conference must establish a 'loss and damage' fund to help countries cope with the irreparable damage caused by climate disasters. The ministers warned that anything less than a climate damage fund would thwart the climate summit's chances of success.

The 2022 UN climate summit marks the first time 'loss and damage' funds to help vulnerable and disaster-hit nations were discussed. 

According to a Reuters report, Molwyn Joseph, Antigua and Barbuda's environment minister, said anything less than establishing a loss and damage fund at COP27 is a betrayal of the people who are working so hard to clean up the environment.