Yamikani Idriss of Malawi, the Transparency Co-ordinator for the Least Developed Country (LDC) Group of climate negotiators, has said that the first week of negotiations at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh did not yield progress on issues that are critical for LDCs.

This conference is meant to be about implementation of the Paris Agreement. Implementation means significantly greater, tangible commitments from developed countries on adaptation and loss and damage finance — according to Mr Idriss.

These issues are “red lines” for most LDCs – he explains, meaning that their faith in the talks will be eroded unless they see greater cooperation.

Mr Idriss notes that for countries like Malawi that are buffeted by intense climate events year after year, “our economic gains are washed away by climate change. Even the little resource we have is used combatting this problem”.

More external finance is needed to get Malawi and other LDCs onto a sustainable footing. Mr Idriss also suggest that this should be concessional – to prevent countries slipping further into debt while facing deep climate change impacts, which they did virtually nothing to cause.

Mr Idriss was talking during the middle weekend of COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, at the end of the Subsidiary Bodies sessions and before the Ministerial segment.

Filming and editing by Pat Hinton, CASA, additional text by Mairi Dupar. Image (top): Flooding in Malawi, (c) UNDP.