COP27 outcomes: Key takeaways from the final agreement There were moments when a final deal at COP27 looked like it might never happen, but a breakthrough was finally made in Sharm el-Sheikh. Breakthrough might be too strong a word. The decision was signed off by nearly two hundred countries – from the major polluters and emerging economies to small island states – early on Sunday morning after a marathon overnight session. Key takeaways: Loss and Damage COP27 reached a historic agreement on a fund to compensate developing countries for losses and damage caused by the climate crisis. These countries, which suffer the most extreme impacts despite small carbon footprints, have called for loss and damage to be addressed for the past 30 years. The issue finally made it into COP27 negotiations after the Egyptian presidency shepherded it onto the official Sharm agenda. Rich countries, particularly the US, had long opposed a loss and damage fund fearing legal liability for years of spewing out greenhouse gas emissions. But they reversed their stances, leading to the breakthrough on what vulnerable countries see as a central matter of climate justice. The agreement sets up a transitional committee, with representatives from 24 countries, which will establish how the fund should work, and where the money should come from. The group will then present its recommendations at COP28 in the United Arab Emirates in 2023, with a view to getting the fund up and running. Keeps 1.5C ‘alive’ – but barely Despite the progress on loss and damage, COP27 was a failure on several fronts – most crucially on the necessary slashing of greenhouse gas emissions to keep the world at its 1.5C temperature goal. At COP26 in Glasgow, there was a major push to hold the world to its 1.5C (above pre-industrial levels) target – and not the less ambitious “well below 2C” – of the Paris Agreement with the acknowledgement that the world is already experiencing devastating climate impacts at around 1.2C of warming. Many small island states and African nations say that failure to keep 1.5C “alive” would be a death sentence for their communities. The Glasgow agreement, countries agreed to “revisit and strengthen” their 2030 climate plans by the end of 2022. But in the past year, only a limited number have done so.
COP27 outcomes: Key takeaways from the final agreement
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