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COP27 | Negotiators reach deal on ‘loss and damage’, says Maldives Environment Minister

Negotiators said they have struck a potential breakthrough deal on the thorniest issue of United Nations climate talks, creation of a fund for compensating poor nations that are victims of extreme weather worsened by rich nations’ carbon pollution.

“There is an agreement on loss and damage,” Maldives Environment Minister Aminath Shauna said on Saturday. It still needs to be approved unanimously in a vote. “That means for countries like ours we will have the mosaic of solutions that we have been advocating for.”

According to the draft of the compensation proposal — the issue is called “loss and damage” in negotiations parlance — developed countries would be “urged” to contribute to the fund, which would also draw on other private and public sources of money such as international financial institutions. At the talks, the world’s poorest nations, which contributed little to historic emissions of heat-trapping gases, have been unified in insisting on such a fund.

Saturday afternoon’s draft proposal came from the Egyptian presidency. A second overarching document from the climate talks leadership ignores India’s call to phase down oil and natural gas, in addition to last year’s agreement to wean the world from “unabated” coal.

“We managed to make progress on an important outcome,” said Wael Aboulmagd, who heads the Egyptian delegation. “I think we’re getting there.” However, the proposal does not suggest that major emerging economies such as China have to contribute to the fund, which was a key ask of the European Union and the United States.

It also does not tie the creation of the new fund to any increase in efforts to cut emissions, or restrict the recipients of funding to those countries that are most vulnerable, which had been an earlier proposal from the Europeans.