COP27 | Success of COP27 hangs on a ‘loss and damage’ thread
COP27
焦点观察
联合国气候变化大会第二十七次会议（COP27）期间，世界大学气候变化联盟（GAUC）青年团赴埃及现场参会。期间青年团在UNFCCC新闻发布厅举办两场发布会，在中国角开展系列主题边会，并于11月9日举办了包含高级别活动在内的GAUC Day专场，展现全球高等教育的气候力量。
青年团向各国领导人递交公开信，积极对话多元利益相关方，与各国青年联动交流，并追踪谈判，对关键议题进行焦点观察。
来自GAUC盟校帝国理工大学的COP27 青年团成员王翰元参与了关于“Loss and Damage”的观察。
来源：
https://granthaminstitute.com/2022/11/16/success-of-cop27-hangs-on-a-loss-and-damage-thread/?mc_cid=29fc6d1254&mc_eid=0f6aa4296b
Michael Wilkins and Hanyuan Wang (Karen) at COP27.
‘Loss and damage’ has leapt to the top of the COP27 headlines after more than 130 developing countries successfully demanded it be added to the agenda for the first time. It was an early breakthrough when countries agreed to discuss funding to help vulnerable countries cope with damage from floods, drought and other climate impacts – the politically contentious issue known as ‘loss and damage’. However, progress towards an agreement is slow and stuttering, and climate negotiators and observers have warned that a ‘no-deal’ on this funding could thwart other agreements.
The “Global Shield Against Climate Risk”
One proposal that does address loss and damage is the Global Shield Against Climate Risk, which was formally launched at COP27 on Monday November 14.
Spearheaded by Germany in its current role as president of the G7 nations, and launched in partnership with the V20 group of climate-vulnerable countries, the Global Shield is intended as a new insurance-based mechanism to provide poor and vulnerable people with substantially more and better pre-arranged finance against disasters.
Funding pledges have already started rolling in. Germany has committed €172 million ($178 million). France will kick in with €20 million ($ 20.8 million) next year. Ireland has promised $10 million and Canada $7 million. Belgium has pledged €2.5 million ($2.6 million) in aid to Mozambique. Over the next four years, Austria will allocate €50 million ($52 million) from its existing budget to fund loss and damage in the world’s most vulnerable countries, while New Zealand will allocate $12 million. The total promised so far stands at about $282.4 million.
The trouble is that these sums are tiny compared with the vast costs of climate disasters that are already happening. In Pakistan alone, this year’s catastrophic floods created loss and damage amounting to $30 billion.
“My country, Pakistan, has seen floods that have left 33 million lives in tatters and have caused loss and damage amounting to 10% of GDP” said Ambassador Munir Akram, Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations.
This year, Pakistan posed the most visible example for the vexing dispute that some countries are having over a loss and damage fund.
A distraction from real action on funding for loss and damage?
The support of the Global Shield by the V20, which includes 20 of the developing nations most exposed to climate impacts, is important to note here. At a press conference earlier this week, Ghanaian finance minister Ken Ofori-Atta called it a “path-breaking” effort that was “long overdue”.
But others have been far less enthusiastic. The major fear is that the Global Shield will divert attention away from the push for a formal loss and damage facility established under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which would impose far more stringent requirements on rich countries while providing far more support to poorer ones.
Similarly, while the Global Shield at COP27 might be interpreted as a sign of progress, some argue that an insurance-based structure will still compel impoverished nations to pay premiums, which they cannot afford.
A political impasse
Compensation for loss and damage does not imply a donation from developed to developing countries. Yet this is how many see it, leading to extremely slow progress on the timeline, funding arrangement, and financing model. During an informal consultation held at the start of week two, the most frequently repeated feedback from countries, particularly those experiencing the worst impacts of climate change, was the request for the setting up of a fund rather than the never-ending, circular discussions on technicalities leading to further delays.
Promisingly, the 27-country European Union said it is now open to discussing such a fund, but, along with the United States, refuses any outcome that could make rich nations legally liable to pay for climate-related damage based on their high historical greenhouse gas emissions. “It’s a well-known fact that the US and many other countries will not establish… some sort of legal structure that is tied to compensation or liability. That’s just not happening,” said US climate envoy John Kerry on Saturday.
China meanwhile has expressed a positive attitude toward supporting climate damage mechanisms, particularly for the most vulnerable countries. China’s chief climate negotiator, Xie Zhenhua, stated that: “China would be willing to collaborate as a developing country that also suffers greatly from extreme weather events”.
For now it seems the political impasse behind loss and damage, hitherto an obscure issue hidden in the depths of COP jargon, still means success overall of the negotiations at Sharm El Sheikh remain on a knife edge.
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世界大学气候变化联盟
世界大学气候变化联盟（Global Alliance of Universities on Climate，GAUC）由清华大学于2019年1月达沃斯世界经济论坛牵头发起，并于2019年5月正式成立。联盟现有成员高校15所，遍布全球六大洲9个国家，包括澳大利亚国立大学、伯克利加州大学、剑桥大学、帝国理工学院、伦敦政治经济学院、麻省理工学院、东京大学、清华大学、里约热内卢联邦大学、印度科学大学、巴黎政治大学、斯坦陵布什大学、牛津大学和哥伦比亚大学、耶鲁大学。
成立以来，联盟围绕联合研究、学生活动、人才培养、绿色校园、公众参与等开展工作，旨在通过研究、教育和公共宣传，推动气候变化解决方案，并同政府、企业和公益组织合作，促进从地方到全球的迅速行动。
2020年1月6日，习近平主席给参与联盟研究生论坛的学生代表回信，对大家就关乎人类未来的问题给予的共同关注表示赞赏，并期待同学们为呵护好全人类共同的地球家园积极作为，欢迎同学们继续关注中国发展，多提一些好的建议。
2021年10月，联盟将研究生论坛升级为全球青年零碳未来峰会，在一周时间内组织30场丰富多彩的活动，吸引超过150万全球关注。2021年10月28日，世界大学气候变化联盟的工作被写入中国政府向联合国气候变化框架公约秘书处提交的国家更新自主贡献目标文件中，肯定联盟展现了青年领导力。
2022年，联盟在成功组织峰会的基础上推出“气候变化协同Climate x”全球行动，在国家层面组织青年领导力培训试点，选拔出100位全球青年大使；在区域层面组织非洲区域气候论坛，吸引超过45所非洲高校助力；在全球层面提议设立全球青年气候周，邀请全球六大洲百余家伙伴联合发起，并由全球青年大使自组织第二届全球青年零碳未来峰会，成为全球青年气候周的旗舰品牌。
来源：帝国理工大学格兰瑟姆气候变化与环境研究所
审核：王彬彬