Climate Conference: Consensus to create a fund to help poor countries this time

International Desk: The participating countries have agreed to provide financial assistance to countries affected by natural disasters at the climate conference in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. Basically the long discussion on this issue extended the scope of the conference by one more day.

In a report on Sunday (November 20), the news agency Reuters reported that the countries participating in the conference agreed to establish a fund to help poor countries affected by climate disasters at the COP-27 conference late on Sunday night. But countries have delayed ratifying a broader agreement outlining global commitments to combat climate change.

The Egyptian COP-27 presidency has released a draft of the overall agreement, the news agency says, after tense talks that lasted through the night. At the same time a plenary session convened to present it as the final and comprehensive agreement of the UN summit.

Reuters reports that overnight the session approved draft provisions to create a 'loss and damage' fund to help developing countries cover the immediate costs of climate-related disasters such as storms and floods.

Talks on creating a 'loss and damage' fund between rich and developing countries are taking longer than expected, according to news outlet Deutsche Welle. The climate conference that started on November 9 was supposed to end on November 18, but it did not. Instead, the representatives of different countries who participated in the conference were able to reach a consensus on 19 November.

Maldives Environment Minister Aminath Shona, who participated in the conference, said a consensus has been reached on the 'Loss and Damage' fund. However, it must be approved in a vote today.

Incidentally, about 30,000 people from 198 countries participated in this conference in Sharm Al Sheikh, Egypt. Many people from Bangladesh also participated there.

Demands from developing countries to create a fund similar to the 'Loss and Damage' fund have dominated the summit over the past two weeks, according to Reuters. And that is why this conference is supposed to end on Friday, but it has actually advanced this discussion.

The document, which forms the overall political agreement for the COP-27 summit, needs ratification by nearly 200 countries at a climate summit in Egypt. In line with earlier iterations, the draft mentions only coal, despite requests by India and other delegates to phase out the use of 'all fossil fuels'.

That was agreed upon at last year's summit.

It should be noted that in the 2015 Paris Agreement, countries pledged to do whatever it takes to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. But no progress has been made in this regard.

 

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