COP27 Conference outcome: Loss and Damage Fund established, but emissions continue unabated

 Liga ba artigu ida ne'e iha Tetum 

The establishment of a Loss and Damage Fund for destruction caused by climate change was a key issue at the recent COP27 conference. Why did this topic emerge, and why are some countries demanding such a fund?

In November, representatives from 140 nations, including Timor-Leste, met at COP27 in Egypt. COP27 was the latest annual UN Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The conference’s mandate was to decide on processes or mechanisms to respond to the climate crisis. The conference concluded on 20 November with an historical agreement to create a special fund to pay for the impacts of climate-related disasters in developing countries.

Prior to the conference, representatives of some developing countries promoted the idea of a fund to pay for losses and damages. Since COP26 last year, the world has observed increasing impacts from climate change - including floods in Pakistan that killed more than 1,700 people, and floods in Nigeria that displaced more than 1.3 million. Timor-Leste is also being hit by climate change - for example, unstable rain patterns have damaged coffee harvests and many farmers have observed the impact on agricultural cycles. Farmers in Los Palos and Viqueque recently told La’o Hamutuk researchers that rising water levels in rice field was hurting harvests. The impacts we see today will become more serious in the future, as greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise.

At the same time, the UN has observed that wealthy nations that have contributed most to the climate crisis have failed to take sufficient action to limit climate change in the future. As a result it has become nearly impossible to limit climate change to 1.5°C, which means that the impacts of climate change will became extremely severe. Who will be responsible to help the victims?

This is why some countries proposed to create a loss and damage fund at the conference. At last year’s COP26, the US and EU blocked such a fund from being started, replacing it with a ‘dialogue’ without a clear objective. At the COP27 conference, proponents again put the fund on the agenda.

In 2022, the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) published a report on the economic impacts of climate change in 55 highly vulnerable nations (including Timor-Leste), concluding that their GDPs were reduced by 20% over the last two decades because of climate change, leading to a combined loss of $525 billion. Many of the most vulnerable countries do not have adequate resources to deal with these impacts, even though many other nations have gotten wealthy through industries and lifestyles that produce nearly all the atmospheric changes that are causing climate change.

For a long time, the climate movement, including La’o Hamutuk in Timor-Leste, have insisted that the climate crisis needs to be resolved in a way that is just. Climate justice means that wealthy nations which have caused most of the changes in climate should bear the greatest share of responsibility for the impacts experienced by developing countries. It is unjust for developing countries to face a dual crisis, firstly because of the direct impacts of climate change on people and the environment, and secondly from the economic burden of managing or responding to those impacts – widening and reinforcing global inequality.

CVF launched the “Payment Overdue” campaign to raise awareness about this issue. They point out that climate catastrophe has become a permanent reality, and therefore wealthy nations need to pay their debt. Proponents of a Loss and Damage Fund argue that humanity cannot adapt to all of the impacts of climate change, and that many of the countries facing the most serious impacts have not caused the problem. They demand compensation from wealthy nations who have contributed the most to causing the problem, to pay the costs of responding to impacts can we cannot adapt to. Nabeel Munir, Pakistan’s representative to COP27, said that “loss and damage is not charity - it’s justice.” 

In their final agreement, COP27 participants decided to create a Loss and Damage Fund. Important details, such as which countries will be obliged to pay into the fund, will be determined in the future, and it is important for civil society to continue to monitor this process.

Unfortunately, although developing countries won a loss and damages fund, COP27 failed to agree on urgent measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As La’o Hamutuk has long pointed out, the world cannot continually adapt to ever-worsening conditions. Adaptation programs and a Loss and Damage Fund can help vulnerable people respond to impacts of climate change that are already unavoidable, but there is only one genuine solution to climate change: stopping greenhouse gas emissions. Some high-emissions countries succeeding in removing key parts of the final COP27 agreement, leaving the agreement with no strong obligation for those nations to immediately stop emitting greenhouse gases. 

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that “Our planet is still in the emergency room. We need to drastically reduce emissions now – and this is an issue this COP did not address.” COP27 failed to make progress on lessening the causes of climate change. However, the example of the Loss and Damage Fund demonstrates that developing countries, working together, can force wealthy nations to act. In the future we need to increase pressure on those nations that continue to exacerbate the climate crisis.

Resources from La'o Hamutuk about climate change in English (more Tetum resources here - scroll to end):

• Proposed TL Climate Change Law and background documents (2023)
  
• Presentation: Climate Justice: A View from the South (2021)
  
• Statement to the first TL Conference on Adaptation to Climate Change (2014)
• Action / Declaration: One Hour for Mother Earth (2010)
• Letter: Timor-Leste Should Not Sign Copenhagen Accord (2010)
• Introductory web page: Climate Change and Timor-Leste (2009)