Release Date – 12:25 AM, Tue – 22 November 22
![Editorial: Mixed climate results](https://cdn.telanganatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/logo-thumbnail.png)
While agreeing to a climate compensation fund was a welcome move, the just-concluded global climate summit in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt – COP27 – failed to instill confidence in tackling the climate crisis. Two weeks of intense negotiations by 190 countries at the 27th United Nations climate summit have failed to meet demands from developed countries, including the United States and Europe, to phase down fossil fuels. Despite agreeing to phase down coal use at last year’s Glasgow conference, other fossil fuels – oil and gas – will remain immune. While the creation of a global fund for “loss and damage” – providing financial aid to poor countries hit by climate catastrophe – is seen by some as a breakthrough, the real challenge lies in its implementation. The idea of a climate compensation fund, as mentioned in the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement itself, is not new. But rich countries have failed to deliver on promises to compensate poor and vulnerable countries and transfer modern technology to tackle the climate crisis. Countries most vulnerable to climate change do feel hurt that their concerns are not being addressed. In fact, the greenhouse gas footprint of developing countries is negligible. Recent devastating floods in Pakistan have led to increased demand for climate compensation. At COP27, developed countries, most notably the US, opposed the creation of a new fund, fearing it would make them legally liable for the enormous damage caused by climate change.
Developed countries pledged to provide $100 billion a year in climate finance by 2020 nearly 15 years ago, but have never delivered. Clearly, trust is crumbling between North and South, between advanced and emerging economies. As warming above pre-industrial levels has had an impact, the largest emitters in history have had to bear responsibility for irreparable damage. The Transitional Council, which runs the Compensation Fund, must now work on an acceptable solution. It may take at least a year to tease out some of the details of how the fund will work before the next climate conference in the United Arab Emirates in November 2023. The fund has also been poorly funded so far, as few countries have pledged large amounts of cash for loss and damage. The Egypt summit failed to make progress on the pledge to limit temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius agreed at COP26 in Glasgow. National plans submitted by countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 fall short of the important goal of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, based on scientific advice.