At 7:00 AM on Friday the 18th of November, nearly two days late the search for a new climate deal in Sharm-El-Shiek, Eygpt ended, and with it COP27.
But it wasn't necessarily on a jubilant note. Still, there was a breakthrough at last for those on the frontline of the climate crisis. Something that the Executive Director of the Caribbean Climate Change Center Dr. Colin Young referred to as a win.
That win: a newly agreed Fund for Loss and Damage, the kind of damage that Belizeans have recently had a lot of experience with in the aftermath of Hurricane Lisa. It's a deal that negotiators from Small Island Developing states say came after decades of asking. And on Sunday night in his post young said quote: "I know for many, this is just words on a paper…but these words in paragraph 3 "establishing of a fund for responding to loss and damage" took 30 years of effort by small island developing states…30 long years! When we are united and when there is leadership, perseverance, and commitment to fight for what is right and just, we succeed." End quote
And while the establishment of this fund is historic it remains, for now, an agreement on just the existence of a fund, an emergency bank account for climate disasters but with a current balance of ZERO. Negotiations over the next year will have to determine who oversees the fund, who pays into it, and who can take money out. Developed countries like the U.S., and the European Union, and some international institutions are expected to be contributors to the fund, Small island developing states like Belize, Barbados, and Grenada, are expected to be the beneficiaries.
