Opening of COP27 locks in discussion on financing for damages

COP27, the UN (United Nations) conference on climate change, dubbed the “COP of implementation”, began this Sunday (6th) in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, “stuck” by discussions that would lead to the realization of the insertion of financing for losses and damages in the official agenda of the event. The evolution on the subject is seen as an essential point for the success of the current COP.

The inclusion was already expected for the beginning of the work of COP27, but, even so, the representatives of the States entered the dawn from Saturday to Sunday discussing the details of the inclusion of losses and damages in the agenda. It is the first time that funding associated with the topic has officially entered the agenda of a COP.

On the first day of the conference, the issue was largely treated as a victory. The president of COP27, Sameh Shoukry, who is foreign minister under the dictatorial regime of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, spoke about a herculean effort of consultations between the countries in the previous 48 hours.

“It is an issue recognized by most of the international community as fundamental,” Shoukry said at a press conference after the official opening of COP27.

“The issue of loss and damage needs to be properly addressed, and the time has come for us to do so. Countries, especially the most vulnerable and least developed, need to receive the support they need to achieve their climate goals. Money is the critical issue in dealing with the magnitude of the crisis,” said Simon Stiel, executive secretary of the UN framework convention on climate change, who, at the opening ceremony, cited the suffering of communities due to the effects of the climate crisis.

Although, on the first day of the COP, a successful speech was already given on the inclusion of financing for damages, this is only a basic initial step for the current climate conference. It is worth remembering that the event takes place in Africa, in the global South, which makes the issue of climate finance even more latent.

Basically, the negotiations proceeded with great difficulty without the formalization of the discussions about money for damages. And the call for funding intended solely for this purpose is nothing new.

There has already been an official debate on the subject at COP26, in Glasgow, from the Glasgow Dialogue, which raised discussions on funding mechanisms in 2022.

The topic may seem banal. After all, what would be the problem of allocating more resources to the real and already visible problem of the climate crisis?

But there is, at least for developed countries. There is a fear that the loss and damage mechanisms are linked to the idea of ​​compensation. That is, there is a concern that the money means that rich countries are “offsetting” their blatant responsibility for the climate catastrophes that affect other nations – especially the most vulnerable ones.

A connection between these ideas could result in exorbitant values.

It cannot be forgotten, moreover, that there is a fog of mistrust between developed and developing countries. After all, the long-standing promise of making available, by 2020, US$ 100 billion a year of climate finance to developing countries has not been fulfilled.

Despite the victory speech on the first day, it is also important to remember that it was only decided to include the issue of financing on the COP agenda. There must be a tug of war between the types of actions possible for the current moment.

Developed countries will likely try to push de facto decisions on financing mechanisms until 2024 – it is worth remembering the period of crisis that the world is experiencing due to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, which impacted European energy issues and finances around the globe, this not to mention security, considering the many mentions that Russian President Vladimir Putin has made about nuclear weapons.

Developing countries should already try to get something more concrete out of COP27 — it is worth remembering the devastating effects of the climate crisis, such as the gigantic flood in Pakistan, which killed more than a thousand people and impacted the lives of millions.

to finish

It was not just the COP27 agenda that suffered from the delay. On the first day of the conference, the physical structure of the event is yet to be finalized. Several stands from countries and organizations were still making adjustments to the structures, despite the fact that part of the public was already circulating through the corridors.

The delay is due to the strong security and surveillance framework surrounding COP27 in Egypt, which led to delays in raw material shipments. At the last minute, there was even the disqualification of people responsible for assembling the stands

The official stand in Brazil, which also hosts several national sectoral organizations, such as the CNI (National Confederation of Industry) and the CNA (Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock), was one of those that were still trying to organize themselves properly.

Videos and data on the Brazilian energy potential cover the entire front of the large stand built by the Jair Bolsonaro government. The focus there is the country’s capacity in the area of ​​green energies.

At the same time, there is almost no attention to the Amazon or other national biomes. In a corner next to the entrance to the stand, which is surrounded by pieces of sugar cane painted green — as are several walls of the place — there is an area dedicated to an “Amazon experience”. Greenish leaves also decorate part of the outside area of ​​the stand.

Interestingly, the official area of ​​the Brazilian government is adjacent to the (comparatively smaller) stand of the Consortium of the Legal Amazon, a group created by the region’s governors at the beginning of Bolsonaro’s term. With the group, Amazonian rulers sought the possibility of bypassing the federal government to seek international funds — after all, the Brazilian environmental image was extremely compromised during the current government.

A few steps forward is the third Brazilian space at COP27, the Brazil Climate Action Hub, a national civil society stand.