COP27 Climate Talks Spill Over as Nations Debate Loss and Damage Funding
The COP27 climate talks in Bonn, Germany, kicked off on Tuesday, and are expected to last until Sept. 22. But as the talks kicked off, a contentious issue came up: how to finance the climate fight.
One option being discussed is the international climate fund known as the ‘COP21-2’. A group of countries including Brazil, Kuwait and Russia could pool their resources to fund the fight against climate change, but critics say this would only make the process more difficult and expensive. On the other hand, some experts say there are many more ways to finance climate-change projects.
While world leaders are hoping to agree a plan for the next stages of climate change negotiations, one major issue has been the potential loss of millions of euros to fund the implementation of the 2015 Paris Agreement. The agreement, which came into effect on June 4, aims to help mitigate the effects of climate change through the reduction of carbon emissions. It also says that by 2020, every country should aim to reduce emissions by 40 percent by 2030 and 80 percent by 2050.
During the opening days of the talks, an estimated 1,600 people gathered at the Bonn Congress Center. Many of the world’s biggest economies, including Brazil, Canada, Japan and the United States, showed up to the talks. On the other hand, major developing countries were conspicuously absent, including India, China, Indonesia and African nations.
After two days of negotiating, all sides came out with a plan. Although many details remain unclear, negotiators said they were aiming to keep the cost of transitioning to low carbon emissions at below 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).
If the COP27 negotiating committee agrees to this figure, it would mean that by 2020, emissions should stay below 40 percent of gross domestic product. The last time this figure was reached was in 2005, with the average emissions in 2005 being 34.1 percent of GDP.
The countries that intend to use this figure are largely developing countries. China and the United States are leading this group, although Brazil is not
