Countries agree on 'loss and damage' fund, final COP27 deal elusive
SHARM EL-SHEIKH: Countries agreed at the COP27 climate summit to set up a fund to help poor countries being battered by climate disasters, but paused before backing a wider deal outlining global resolve to fight climate change.
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After tense negotiations that ran through the night, the Egyptian COP27 presidency released a text of the draft agreement – and simultaneously called a plenary session to gavel it through as a final, overarching agreement.
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The session approved the text’s provision to set up a “loss and damage” fund to help developing countries bear the immediate costs of climate-fuelled events such as storms and floods.
But immediately after, Switzerland called for a 30-minute suspension to allow time to study the new text. Negotiators earlier had expressed worry about changes being negotiated and written so late in the process.
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Earlier on Saturday, the U.N. climate agency on Saturday published an updated draft of a proposed final agreement for the COP27 summit, fleshing out some key parts of the deal countries are struggling to reach.
The document, which forms the overall political deal for COP27, would need approval from the nearly 200 countries at the climate summit in Egypt. Negotiators will spend the next few hours studying the texts and deciding whether they can back them.
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The so-called ‘cover decision’ sits alongside a host of other agreements still subject to intense negotiation a day after the summit was due to have closed.
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