SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt — Delegates at the the UN’s COP27 climate summit in Egypt agreed to discuss whether rich nations should compensate poor countries most vulnerable to climate change for their suffering.
“This creates for the first time an institutionally stable space on the formal agenda of COP and the Paris Agreement to discuss the pressing issue of funding arrangements needed to deal with existing gaps, responding to loss and damage,” COP27 president Sameh Shoukry told the opening plenary.
The item was adopted to the agenda in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on Sunday, as world leaders arrived for the negotiations scheduled to run through Nov. 18.
Much of the tension at COP27 is expected to relate to loss and damage – funds provided by wealthy nations to vulnerable lower-income countries that bear little responsibility for climate-warming emissions.
At COP26 last year in Glasgow, high-income nations blocked a proposal for a loss and damage financing body, instead supporting a new three-year dialogue for funding discussions.
The loss and damage discussions now on the agenda at COP27 will not involve liability or binding compensation, but they are intended to lead to a conclusive decision “no later than 2024,” Shoukry said.
“The inclusion of this agenda reflects a sense of solidarity for the victims of climate disasters,” he added.
Before the adoption, Matthew Samuda, a minister in Jamaica’s economic growth ministry, said, “I’m hopeful that it will get on the agenda.”
“There has been a softening of positions from many nations who a year ago or two years ago would not have been willing to support it.”
Others expressed concern about potential holdouts.
“We know the Europeans are supporting us,” said Saleemul Huq, director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development. “Now we need to see whether the US is going to block on their own or not.”
