US ‘isolated’ in opposition to loss and damage fund at COP27

Negotiators on Saturday were reviewing a new proposal that Egyptian delegation put forward at the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, which included a compromise on “loss and damage” funding for developing countries that have been hardest-hit by the climate crisis—but lacked a call for a fossil fuel phaseout.

Under pressure from the Global South, the issue of loss and damage has been a major focus at the conference, which is now in overtime as negotiators haggle over loss and damage as well as concrete steps to phase out all fossil fuel pollution.

The U.S. has emerged as a holdout regarding the creation of funding mechanisms for countries in the Global South, where millions are facing drought-fueled hunger crises, catastrophic flooding, and other climate impacts despite their countries contributing a tiny fraction of the carbon emissions caused by the U.S., the biggest historic fossil fuel emitter in the world.

The draft proposal that the Egyptian hosts of the conference offered on Saturday included a dedicated loss and damage fund that would be set up by the end of 2021 and a committee that would decide how the fund should operate, with those plans finalized at next year’s conference, COP28 in Dubai. The proposal “urges” countries in the Global North to contribute to the fund.

The U.S. delegation, led by Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, has blocked the inclusion of a dedicated loss and damage fund in the conference’s final agreement—with the country’s stonewalling earning it the title of “colossal fossil” at a ceremony organized by climate campaigners on Friday.

Negotiations in the final hours of the gathering may also be logistically complicated by Kerry’s Covid-19 diagnosis, which was reported Friday.

“We are already in overtime at COP27 and our message is very clear—we cannot afford a bad deal,” said Zeina Khalil Hajj. “The world around us is on fire, we cannot delay implementing 1.5°C.”

Hajj noted that more than 600 fossil fuel lobbyists have attended the talks where negotiators are now failing to hammer out a deal that takes into consideration repeated warnings from climate experts regarding the continued use of oil and gas.

Originally published at Commondreams.org.