Editorial: Climate conference results a mixed blessing

Patience Nabukalu, a climate activist from Uganda, speaks as youth activists at the climate summit encourage world leaders to limit warming to 1.5 C and provide reparations for loss and damage. Photo / AP

EDITORIAL

A promising pledge to help poorer countries at the United Nations climate conference in Egypt has been tempered by inaction on fossil fuels.

The fact that Cop27 agreed to a “loss and damage” fund for vulnerable countries dealing with climate impacts is a historic achievement. It is something that has been pushed for, without success, for years.

“Three long decades and we have finally delivered climate justice,” was the reaction of Seve Paeniu, Tuvalu’s Finance Minister.

But painful caution learned from past climate conferences applies. The world will still have to see whether and how this goal is realised. It will take time for details to be worked out. If followed through, it could be an important turning point.

At least it’s an acknowledgment of the global problem, whereby greenhouse gas emissions from big polluters cause billions of damage in countries with far smaller carbon footprints.

There would be more applause if the overall problem weren’t so urgent. Each year that passes now feels more like five in the timespan of tackling climate change.

It still seems as though the chief culprits aren’t fully engaged with the crisis. There were no new emissions cuts and countries skirted around the main problem - fossil fuels.

Last year’s climate talks president Alok Sharma of the UK listed what was lacking: “Clear follow through on the phase-down of coal? Not in this text. A clear commitment to phase out all fossil fuels? Not in this text. And the energy text weakened in the final minutes.”

Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said: “It is more than frustrating to see overdue steps on mitigation and the phase-out of fossil energies being stonewalled by a number of large emitters and oil producers”.

UN climate chief Simon Stiell of Grenada said that the plans countries had submitted on emission-cutting targets “just don’t add up”. The 2030 plans were not enough to limit global temperature rises to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, as scientists advise.

Although the aim is for countries generally to contribute, there are great disparities on where most of the blame falls. The United States is estimated to have caused the most climate damage as a country and is one of the highest emitters per capita.

And there’s also debate over the role of energy firms. Between July and September, six energy companies made nearly US$100 billion in profits.

The European Union was the first wealthy bloc to make a U-turn on loss and damage after previously arguing alongside the US that existing funds should be used to aid vulnerable countries. After much debate at the conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, the US came on board.

The political and activist heat which forced the fund needs to be maintained. A 2009 vow by developed countries to spend US$100b annually on aid to poor nations to develop environmental energy and adaptation hasn’t been kept.

At least the loss and damage fund gives hope to the idea that power in unity and piling on pressure can bring about some results, even if they are insufficient to the moment.