Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, 20 November 2022 – Following the closing of COP27 this morning, the LDC Group representing 46 countries most vulnerable to climate change while contributing the least, reflected on the outcomes. 

“This is the first time in many years that our nations do not come out of a COP empty-handed. COP27 has delivered a historic decision in establishing a fund to address loss and damage. The decision responds to one of our Group’s biggest demands over the past decades.” said Madeleine Diouf Sarr, Chair of the Least Developed Countries Group. “The signal this decision sends to the world and to ourselves as parties is faith in this multilateral process and its results upon which our future depends.”  

“We’re pleased to leave Sharm El-Sheikh with a fund for addressing loss and damage. This is the result of strong unity amongst the G77 and China and decades of persistence in demanding climate justice.”

“We appreciate the efforts from all Parties to agree on the historic establishment of a fund to respond to loss and damage that are already resulting from climate change effects all over the world. Our people are affected disproportionately despite contributing the least to the cause of climate change. We need immediate financial support to respond to the growing impacts of the climate crisis.”

“But we know a lot of work remains to ensure that the loss and damage fund established has adequate resources and processes to ensure it can effectively respond to the needs of our communities in addressing loss and damage caused by climate change.”

“The transitional committee established here must immediately start the work to design an effective operational modality for the loss and damage fund as an operating entity under the financial mechanism of the Convention and the Paris Agreement, with the provision of new, additional, and predictable public funding, no later than 2023.”

“But COP27 did not deliver in every way. If we are to fully address this climate crisis as promised in the Paris Agreement, the commitment to limit warming to 1.5°C should have been at the center of the final decision. We needed to clearly acknowledge that limiting warming to 1.5°C is the only way to prevent climate chaos, so countries’ emissions reduction efforts need to be scaled up dramatically so that global emissions halve by 2030.”

“On adaptation, the LDC Group is pleased to see the initiation of the framework for the Global Goal on Adaptation, to further refine the details of the goal and guide its work moving forward. We continue to stress the importance of financial support to allow our countries to implement their national adaptation plans and certainly hope to see more progress on this going forward.”  

“On climate finance, discussions progressed to agree on a new goal for climate finance by 2023. It’s critical that the new goal is developed based on the needs of our countries to mitigate climate change, adapt to its impacts, and address the inevitable loss and damage it is increasingly causing. There must also be built-in transparency so we can track progress clearly.”

“Again, it was disappointing that developed countries still have not delivered on their decade-old promise to deliver $100 billion in climate finance annually. It’s now been three years since we expected to see these sums delivered, but the funds received remain far from what was promised. We are hopeful the commitment will be met next year, and the difference made up. We’re glad that the COP27 decision requested a report to show progress on the doubling of the adaptation finance goal, so we don’t face the same delay and another missed delivery of a clear commitment.”

Source: LDC Group Chair’s media office. Image: Flooding Malawi, courtesy UNDP.