{"id":688,"date":"2022-12-02T17:48:07","date_gmt":"2022-12-02T22:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/?p=688"},"modified":"2022-12-02T19:25:40","modified_gmt":"2022-12-03T00:25:40","slug":"after-cop27-the-question-is-how-the-loss-and-damage-fund-will-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/reloading\/2022\/12\/02\/after-cop27-the-question-is-how-the-loss-and-damage-fund-will-work\/","title":{"rendered":"After COP27, the question is how the ‘loss and damage fund’ will work?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By: Yumna Iftikhar<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eddy P\u00e9rez says he was relieved and there was a \u201clot of clapping\u201d in the room when countries finally reached an agreement in Egypt last month to create a \u201closs and damage fund.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fund, agreed to by countries at the United Nations climate conference COP27, aims to provide assistance to developing countries that are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. These effects include \u2013 but are not limited to \u2013 floods, droughts, crop fires, prolonged heat waves, species extinction and rising sea levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

P\u00e9rez lives in Montreal and is the director of international diplomacy at Climate Action Network Canada. At the meetings in Sharm el-Sheikh, he says his responsibility was to represent civil society, engage with journalists, organize speeches, meet with countries to discuss different options and lead other advocacy efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was his sixth journey to COP. \u201cThere was a sense that something new was happening in that room and that we are about to adopt something more meaningful.”<\/gwmw><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The agreement to create a \u201closs and damage fund\u201d at the United Nations climate conference has been dubbed a \u201cbreakthrough,\u201d but not without some skepticism about the lack of details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While P\u00e9rez noted this is an historic international decision, other experts and activists are asking how the fund is going to work and whether Canada can take a leadership role in the climate change talks.<\/gwmw><\/gwmw><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mitchell Beer is a publisher and managing editor of the Energy Mix, a climate change news site. He says he has mixed feelings about the results of the convention. Beer describes the decision as a \u201cstunning victory wrapped in a disaster.\u201d<\/gwmw><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was a really hugely important moment, a huge milestone. There were so many pieces on the COP agenda that only advanced incrementally,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beer says he is happy an agreement was reached on the loss and damage fund but he\u2019s disappointed other important climate issues were missing, like keeping emissions low.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The objective of a \u201closs and damage fund\u201d is for rich countries to provide compensation for losses and damages faced by developing countries due to climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to an October report<\/a>, in 2020, G20 countries \u2013 those with the largest economies in the world \u2013 emitted over 75 per cent of greenhouse gases.  Developing countries \u2013 whose economies are smaller and whose carbon emissions are lower \u2013 are experiencing the devastating consequences of climate change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this year, flooding in Pakistan resulted in a third of the country being submerged in water. Pakistan contributes less than one per cent of emissions.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tamara Krawchenko, an assistant professor in public administration at the University of Victoria, says the concept of a loss and damage fund has been discussed before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere have been absolute decades upon decades of calls from both lower income countries that have been disproportionately impacted by climate change but also from researchers, ethicists,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tamara Krawchenko says Canada has played an important role in climate change efforts (Submitted by Tamara Krawchenko)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While the agreement to create this fund has been referred to as a \u201cbreakthrough\u201d by the United Nations, there is a lot to be decided. Governments agreed to set up a \u201ctransitional committee<\/a>\u201d to nail down the details before COP meets again in 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beer says there is a risk of countries backsliding on their promises between now and then. \u201cIt took them two weeks of negotiating and months of arm twisting before that to agree to [the fund].\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ian Burton, a geography and environmental studies professor at the University of Toronto, says negotiations will be slowed down by questions about which countries will be providing funding and which countries will receive funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhich country, as in how much and how to measure that, are all difficult questions to answer and there will be wide disagreements amongst the parties of the convention,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canada\u2019s role<\/strong> <\/gwmw><\/gwmw><\/gwmw><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Beer says Canada will have to answer another important question: where will Canada\u2019s portion of the fund come from? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although there is still no information on how much Canada is going to put into the fund and where the funding will come from, Krawchenko says Canada has played an important role in these talks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCanada has shown some leadership on how we are going to tackle this issue and that\u2019s a very positive thing,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

P\u00e9rez also says that Canada has played a progressive role. \u201cThey moved before other developed countries and they were able to show support for the kind of discussions that we needed to have when it comes to loss and damage.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

P\u00e9rez adds that it is a welcome shift that even when Canada is a major polluter and has a history of blocking negotiations about tackling the causes of climate change, the country was able to step up and say,  \u201cWe need to talk about the consequences of the actions that Canada has provoked in the atmosphere.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, P\u00e9rez says Canada needs to continue being a \u201cchampion\u201d for the discussions that will take place within the next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Burton says he wants to see Canada \u201ctake a lead in the negotiations to help implement and specify how this fund is to be supported and managed.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why should Canadians care?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Beer says helping developing countries is an ethical imperative. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSitting in a wealthy country in a wealthy part of the world \u2026 there are parts of the world that are systematically suffering so deeply, and at a practical level we have to do everything that we can about this crisis to get as close as possible to leaving no one behind,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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