COP27 will be a failure if reparations for loss and damage are not properly addressed

Developing nations have pinned the success of the 27th Conference of the Parties (COP27) underway in Egypt on the outcomes of talks on climate liability and reparations, officially regarded as “loss and damage”. Off the back of accelerating global climate impacts and devastating floods in Pakistan and South Africa, vulnerable countries came to COP27 demanding a deal on loss and damage. There is no finance under the current UN framework to address loss and damage.

Following COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland last year, broad agreement was reached among developing nations that COP27 in 2022 was the moment to resolve issues around loss and damage. Despite this, loss and damage was almost kicked to the curb entirely as an official agenda item for this year’s COP during the “Glasgow Dialogues” that took place in June 2022 when parties convened in Bonn, Germany. Delaying, derailing and stalling loss and damage discussions has been a long-standing position by countries like the United States and the European Union who share the bulk of liability for present, past and future climate-related disasters.

“The successful outcome of the loss and damage does have a strong bearing on the outcome and credibility of this COP. It is widely understood that mistrust between developed and developing nations are at an all-time high. Good progress on loss and damage would restore some of that trust if it is pushed out without tangible outcomes that mistrust is going to grow,” said Brandon Abdinor, climate advocacy lawyer at the Centre for Environmental Rights (CER). Abdinor added that a poor outcome will cause developing countries to possibly use sound climate action as a bargaining chip.

“We end up in a stalemate with the loser being sound climate response,” he said.