Guest Post: COP27: one big breakthrough but ultimately an inadequate response to the climate crisis

Photo by IISD/ENB

Matt McDonald, The University of Queensland

For 30 years, developing nations have fought to establish an international fund to pay for the “loss and damage” they suffer as a result of climate change. As the COP27 climate summit in Egypt wrapped up over the weekend, they finally succeeded.

While it’s a historic moment, the agreement of loss and damage financing left many details yet to be sorted out. What’s more, many critics have lamented the overall outcome of COP27, saying it falls well short of a sufficient response to the climate crisis. As Alok Sharma, president of COP26 in Glasgow, noted:

Friends, I said in Glasgow that the pulse of 1.5 degrees was weak. Unfortunately it remains on life support.

But annual conferences aren’t the only way to pursue meaningful action on climate change. Mobilisation from activists, market forces and other sources of momentum mean hope isn’t lost.

End game for COP27: Will there be backsliding on Fossil fuels or 1.5C target? Will a Loss and Damage finance Facility be established?

COP Presidency Friday 11pm press briefing

The UN climate change conference is approaching its end game.

Will there be backsliding on Fossil fuels or 1.5C target? 

Will a Loss and Damage finance Facility be established?

The negotiations are past Friday closing, well into overtime working through the night.

UNFCCC draft documents can be found here:  https://unfccc.int/document

Stakeout: António Guterres, UN Secretary-General and Sameh Shoukry, COP27 President demand negotiators step up

Sameh Shoukry, COP27 President and the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres targeted comments at negotiators, although they did not identify the blockers in negotiations. 

According to Sameh Shoukry, the items of contention are "The Mitigation Work Program (MWP) is yet to reach the desired outcome, Adaptation is still held back by procedural matters, ambitious outcomes on finance have not yet materialised. And on Loss and Damage Parties are shying away from taking the difficult political decisions."

Add to this the cover decision of COP has yet to include any ambition, such as the request by India to change the phasedown of coal statement from COP26 to being a Phaseout of all Fossil Fuels.

Watch them both trying to shame the negotiators in stepping up, compromise to deliver climate ambition especially on Loss and Damage Finance at this COP.

See also Side-event at the bottom of this post: Practical Action, NYU, Germanwatch, UCS: To many the climate negotiations appear to be stuck, how do we unlock progress on Loss and Damage?

Fossil Award to New Zealand for disappointing Saturday night statement on Loss and Damage Finance Facility

New Zealand acts ambitous, and then on Saturday night releases a disappointing statement on Loss and Damage Finance. 

Saturday night a perfect time to make an unsavoury statement expecting people to be winding down from a hard week and not paying attention. 

We see you New Zealand.

Flood the COP - Pay up for Loss and Damage at COP27

Photo: David Tong, Oil Change International

Will the conference achieve even a modicum of success in moving forward Loss and Damage and establishment of a Loss and Damage Finance Facility? That is still unknown.

A small battle was won at the start of COP27 to get Loss and Damage on the formal Agenda, but that is no gurantee of an outcome. There are countries who are still interested in delay, kicking the can down the road.

So on Friday members of civil society dressed in blue to Flood the COP at the conference. Most of the meetings had been shut down anyway due to the presence of US President Joe Biden and his speech announcing more details of actions the US is taking.

Early this week there was another flooding problem: a major sewerage flood at the UN Climate Change conference in Sharm El-Shiekh. Enough for people to start calling it Sharm El-Shit. 

This is symptomatic of many problems and stories coming out of this COP. Expensive food, with long queues. Very little access to water, initially. Delegates being rorted by accommodation jacking up prices. Little shade or space for civil society to organise. The atmosphere of suppression of local civil society and human rights.

Australia a laggard on climate finance. Will it promise more at COP27, support a Loss and damage facility?

According to a recent Carbon Brief analysis, Australia gave just 38% of its fair share climate finance and fell short by US$1.7bn. Other assessments have been equally critical.

In Falling Short: Australia's role in funding fairer climate action in a Warming World - by Action Aid, Oxfam Australia and other NGOs on Australia's climate finance, found that Australia’s international climate funding is currently just a tenth of our international fair share. 

Australia’s fair share of international commitments is AUD$4 billion per year; however, our average contributions sit at only AUD$400 million per year over the period 2020-2025 says the report. 

If Australia wants to support our Pacific neigbours and host the UN Climate Conference COP31 in 2026, climate finance is an area it needs to step up.

As COP27 starts Australia supports Loss and Damage finance, bids for COP31 in 2026 and a new Climate Change Ambassador

As the UN climate change conference COP27 starts in Sharm El-Sheikh, Australia has announced our new Climate Change Ambassador to be career public servant Kristin Tilley.

Australia is also launching a bid with Pacific nations to host the 2026 UN climate change conference (COP31). These conferences are rotated around the different regions and the next opportunity for Europe and other, which Australia is in, will be in 2026.

With the election of a Labor Government to Federal Parliament in May 2022, Australia has increased its commitment to climate action. From being a laggard country it is now in the middle of the pack of developed nations.

At the opening plenary Australia, as chair of the Umbrella Group of Nations, supported the inclusion of the agenda item on financial measures to address Loss and Damage, a key item for developing countries.

Guest Post: Australia violated the rights of Torres Strait Islanders by failing to act on climate change, the UN says. Here’s what that means

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Guest post by Kristen Lyons, The University of Queensland via the Conversation.

In a landmark decision, a United Nations committee on Friday found Australia’s former Coalition government violated the human rights of Torres Strait Islanders by failing to adequately respond to the climate crisis.

The Torres Strait Islanders ‘Group of Eight’ claimed Australia failed to take measures such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions and upgrading seawalls on the islands. The UN upheld the complaint and said the claimants should be compensated.

This decision is a breakthrough in Indigenous rights and climate justice, including by opening up new pathways for Indigenous communities – who are often on the frontline of the climate crisis – to defend their rights.

Australia, Captain of the Fossil Fueled Five, wins Colossal Fossil of COP26

Australia wins Colossal Fossil Award of COP26 - Jo Dodds accepts award

Loss and damage is very real even for first world people in Australia. After the Black Summer bushfires there are still people living in tents two years later, while a bushfire recovery fund remains entirely unspent. This is the same arrogance that Australia has treated our first nation people since invasion and colonisation, and our Pacific neighbours who have pleaded for Australia to step up on climate action, phase out of coal, and fund loss and damage in our region.

Australian really is at this time the unrepentant captain of the Fossil Fueled Gang of Five and well deserves the Colossal Fossil award of COP26.

This is Australia's shame, especially disturbing given the abundant renewable energy resources, and the deep knowledge of indigenous people from 60,000 to 80,000 years of experience of land management and culture. Our First Nation peoples have already experienced climate change and sea level change on our continent, and have embedded knowledge of these changes within dreamtime stories that can provide insight to transition.

Jo Dodds, President of Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action, accepted the award for Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Energy Minister Angus Taylor.

#FossiloftheDay is back baby https://t.co/5WvwAouCPw

— Isabel Baudish (@IsabelBaudish) November 12, 2021

Fossil awards today to the UK on loss and damage finance, and to New Zealand squibbing on ambition in their NDC

Host country, the UK gets a fossil award for failing to do their homework on loss and damage finance. And they had a year extension to do it. 

The second award to New Zealand, thought that appearing green would disguise their lack of NDC ambition and they  literally said that just because a refreshing of the NDC has been asked of countries "it doesn't mean we have to.”  Come and join Australia in the (coal) sin bin neighbours.

This is Loss and Damage - Who Pays? It must feature at COP26 in Glasgow

In the powerful new film, "This is Loss and Damage - Who Pays?", climate activist, Vanessa Nakate, and Loss and Damage experts, Professor Saleem Huq and Harjeet Singh, offer a compelling way out of the Loss and Damage finance stalemate: an international mechanism funded by the fossil fuel polluters who caused the crisis.

The film is part of the launch of the Make Polluters Pay campaign, led by a coalition of  charities and organisations in the leadup to the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, COP26. The campaign aims to raise public awareness about the urgent need for loss and damage funding, paid for by the biggest polluters. 

So what are some possible mechanisms to raise money for a Loss and Damage Fund? A Robin Hood style Financial Transactions Tax is possible. A Climate Damages Tax levied on existing fossil fuels extracted.

Panel discussion of Loss and Damage video.

Two Fossils Awards: Developed Countries for lack of Loss and Damage climate finance, and Austria for facilitating coal subsidies

Some unusual suspects today. While everyone was looking at SBSTA discussion on to 'note' or 'welcome' the IPCC special report on 1.5C, these bad boys snuck in and whisked away the Fossil of the Day awards.

The first Award went to the developed countries of the Executive Committee (Excomm) of the Warsaw International Mechanism (WIM) on Loss and Damage. Five years old and still not a penny of climate finance. How miserly the parents are.

But the Climate Action Network is gracious and sang them a Happy birthday message.

The second Fossil Award to Austria for subsidising coal. Yes, you heard me right, Austria, not Australia! Austria has the presidency of the European Council and wants to subsidize existing and new coal plants for the next 17 years through backdoor mechanisms. Really Austria, you know you can't compete with Australia when it comes to coal (Cough Cough).

Here be the award commendations for today: