COP27 draws to a close

“The possibility of limiting global warming to 1.5°C is just about still alive, there has been just about enough progress on the contentious issue of loss and damage, and the credibility of the COP process has just about remained intact. But this COP won’t feel like justice for the billions of people whose futures look bleak.

“Pakistan’s catastrophic floods, Europe’s record-breaking heat and rampant wildfires in the United States are more than enough evidence that there can be no place for coal, oil and gas, nor harmful subsidies that fuel the climate crisis and yet negotiators have gone backwards on phasing them out.

"There will be a high price to pay for this lack of ambition – the longer emissions continue, the greater the cost of adapting to climate impacts and the losses and damages they incur.

“There’s precious little detail in the plan to deliver finance to help the poorest and most vulnerable people adapt to the impacts of climate change. Without greater transparency and accountability, promises of funding made by wealthier countries seem like little more than hot air.

"If richer countries want to rebuild trust after their failure to deliver on their promise of US$100 billion by 2020, they need to respond to what lower income countries are asking for.”

“The negotiators at COP27 have risen to the occasion and taken bold, brave action in agreeing to establish a loss and damage fund but there is much still to be agreed if it is to meet the needs of the millions of people already suffering the impacts of climate change.

"It needs to deliver finance at the speed and scale necessary to respond to the kinds of catastrophic events, like flooding, wildfires and drought, that the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people are already experiencing.

"We cannot rely on insurance schemes to do this job. It’s going to take a raft of different systems and provisions to make sure people have the access they need to vital funds when disaster strikes.”