Cop27, agreement reached on relief for the damages of climate change

One step away from breaking up, an agreement was found.

At COP27 in Sharm el Sheikh, rich countries led by the US and EU, and emerging and developing countries led by China, agreed to set up a fund to restore the losses and damages caused by global warming in the poorest and most vulnerable countries .

It was the thorniest point of the negotiation, the one on which he risked skipping the table.

Now the last filings are missing, and the ok to the final document, which could arrive in the night or on Sunday.

But the risk of a failure of the COP, of a conference that ended without tangible results, has been thwarted.

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The day in Sharm had started very badly.

The vice president of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, had announced that the EU was ready to leave the negotiations if an acceptable agreement was not reached.

A few days ago the Union had reluctantly agreed to the "loss and damage" fund, loudly requested by the G77+China countries, led by Beijing.

The Union feared that it would be too burdensome and time-consuming, and preferred to update existing instruments.

But faced with the united position of the G77 and China, the EU ended up giving in.

However, she had set conditions.

The fund was intended to go only to the most vulnerable countries, and not to all developing countries, which still include superpowers such as China and India.

And it had to be funded by the broader donor base, including China, which instead wanted to shift the burden only to the West.

Furthermore, in exchange for its yes to the fund, the EU asked that COP27 confirm all the ambitious commitments to mitigate climate change made last year at COP26 in Glasgow.

In particular, the goal of keeping global warming within 1.5 degrees of pre-industrial levels.

An unwelcome constraint for China, which indeed wants to commit itself to decarbonisation, but does not want to make too many commitments with the outside world.

During the night between Friday and Saturday, the Egyptian presidency presented a draft on loss and damage, which did not take into account the European proposal.

The Union at that point decided to defend itself.

And the European hard-nosed has given its results.

In the afternoon, China and the G77 said yes to indicating in the final document that the recipients of aid will be the most vulnerable countries, and that the pool of donors will be expanded.

In the evening, the safeguarding of the target of 1.5 degrees warming maximum set in Glasgow remained to be defined.

But the deal was now at hand.