COP28: Should You Expect Anything Earth-Shaking?

All negotiations—on emission reduction, energy transition and climate action—will eventually be tied to climate finance

- P. Anima

COP27 (Conference of Parties) at Sharm el-Sheikh, the Egyptian city, was scheduled to wrap up last year on 18 November after two-weeks of talks. Hard-fought negotiations, however, went down to the wire at the global climate conference attended by about 100 heads of State and over 190 countries, and when it eventually closed almost two days later, had a breakthrough to show-a loss and damage (L&D) fund-financial assistance for countries vulnerable to climate change impacts.

It is not unusual for COP negotiations—the annual conference convened under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)—to go into extra time. “The most difficult issues get deferred to the last moment," noted R.R. Rashmi, distinguished fellow at The Energy and Resources Institute and India’s former principal negotiator under the UNFCCC.

At COP27, a ‘difficult issue’ was an exclusive L&D fund, a demand insisted upon by Small Island Developing States, Africa and other developing countries in the wake of widespread impacts of climate change on vulnerable people. It materialized at the fag-end after political parleys and give-and-take. “Political concessions cannot be made at the level of negotiators; consensus emerges when ministers intervene and the process takes time," explained Rashmi.

A clear-cut legacy of COP27, an L&D fund prised open the door on an issue unresolved for long but stopped short of giving it form or character. The Sharm el-Sheikh Implementation Plan refers only to “matters relating to funding arrangements responding to loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change". The nitty-gritty of the funding arrangement—its nature, scale or host—were left for later. While COP27 ended with the notional agreement on L&D funding, there was none on the resources that will flow into it, Rashmi pointed out.