SHARM EL-SHEIKH: Countries agreed early Sunday at the COP27 climate summit to set up a fund to help poor countries being battered by climate disasters, but delayed approving a wider deal outlining global resolve to fight climate change.

After tense negotiations that ran through the night, the Egyptian COP27 presidency released a draft text for an overall agreement - and simultaneously called a plenary session to gavel it through as the final, overarching agreement for the UN summit.

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 it kicked many of the most controversial decisions on the fund into next year, when a “transitional committee” would make recommendations for countries to then adopt at the COP28 climate summit in November 2023.

Those recommendations would cover “identifying and expanding sources of funding” - referring to the vexed question of which countries should pay into the new fund.

Calls by developing countries for such a fund have dominated the two-week summit, pushing the talks past their scheduled Friday finish.

And after a pause requested by Switzerland to review the final text, negotiators gave no objections as COP27 President Sameh Shoukry rattled through the final agenda items.

By the time dawn broke over the summit venue in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, the deal was done.

Fossil fuel fizzle

The two-week summit has been seen as a test of global resolve to fight climate change - even as a war in Europe, energy market turmoil and rampant consumer inflation distract international attention.

Billed as the “African COP,” the summit in Egypt had promised to highlight the plight of poor countries facing the most severe consequences from global warming caused mainly by wealthy, industrialised nations.

Negotiators from the European Union and other countries had said earlier that they were worried about efforts to block measures to strengthen last year’s Glasgow Climate Pact.

“While progress on loss and damage was encouraging, it is disappointing that the decision mostly copy and pasted language from Glasgow about curbing emissions, rather than taking any significant new steps,” said Ani Desgupta, president of the non-profit World Resources Institute.

In line with earlier iterations, the approved deal did not contain a reference requested by India and some other delegations to phasing down use of “all fossil fuels”.

It instead called on countries to take steps toward “the phasedown of unabated coal power and phase-out of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies,” as agreed at the COP26 Glasgow summit.

The draft also includes a reference to “low-emissions energy”, raising concern among some that it opened the door to the growing use of natural gas - a fossil fuel that leads to both carbon dioxide and methane emissions.

Norway’s Climate Minister Espen Barth Eide told reporters his team had hoped for a stronger agreement. “It does not break with Glasgow completely, but it doesn’t raise ambition at all,” he said.

“I think they had another focus. They were very focused on the fund,” he said.

Important step towards justice: UN chief

Reacting to the development, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that the COP27 has taken an “important step towards justice”.

In a video post shared on Twitter, he welcomed the decision to establish a loss and damage fund and to operationalize it in the coming period. He admitted that the announcement would not be enough, but crucial to rebuilding the “broken” trust.

“Clearly this will not be enough, but it is a much-needed political signal to rebuild broken trust,” he said and added that the voices of those on the front line of the climate crisis must be heard. He assured that the UN would support this effort every step of the way.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also spoke in the same tone as the UN chief, who visited Pakistan in September.

“The establishment of loss & damage fund at the UN climate summit is the first pivotal step towards the goal of climate justice. It is up to the transitional committee to build on the historic development. I appreciate Sherry Rehman & her team for their contribution & hard work,” he said in a Twitter.

‘Hope for vulnerable communities’

Sherry Rehman, the federal minister for climate change, quickly took to Twitter to hail the announcement in a long thread. She had also attended the climate change summit. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also took part in it.

“It’s been a long 30-year journey from demand to formation of the loss and damage fund for 134 countries,” she said and like the UN chief described it as an important first step in reaffirming the core principles of “climate justice”.

Pakistan, where more than 33 million people have been displaced due to floods triggered by rains, has demanded the global community to help it and countries alike that have suffered the most due to the impact of climate change.

The climate change minister said the country looked forward to it being operationalised and becoming a robust body that was able to answer with agility to the needs of the vulnerable, the fragile, and those on the frontline of climate disasters.

“The announcement offers hope to vulnerable communities all over the world who are fighting for their survival from climate stress. And gives some credibility to the COP process. Now it’s up to the transitional committee to move it forward by December 2023 as decided.”

She appreciated the efforts of all organizations, her government, and friendly countries for achieving the feat. “Such solid support kept many of us going just when we thought it was touch and go.”

Sherry, who is present at the global summit on behalf of the G77 and China at the closing plenary of COP27, said the establishment of a fund was not charity, however, a “down payment” on the shared futures. “It is a down payment on climate justice.

“The ultimate test of this COP is that it responded to the voices of the vulnerable, the damaged and the lost of the whole world by establishing a fund for loss and damage,” she said.