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Egypt pushes ‘loss and damage’ at top of UN climate summit agenda

(EurActiv, 30 Sep 2022) Egypt, which is hosting the upcoming COP27 climate summit, is working on how to include compensation for economic losses caused by climate catastrophes on the formal agenda of the November summit, as pressure grows from vulnerable countries to prioritise the issue.

Wael Aboulmagd, Egypt’s special representative for the COP27, told reporters that the host country is “putting a lot of effort” into ensuring that the question of how to compensate countries that have experienced heavy economic loss due to climate catastrophes is prioritised at the forum.

“We need to find a practical solution that accommodates the various concerns and it’s up to us as the incoming presidency to sort of navigate and finesse this process,” Aboulmagd told reporters on Wednesday (28 September). “We are inching closer.”

Including “loss and damage” on the agenda is a complicated task because lower-income and climate-vulnerable countries are seeking compensation for damages from climate-induced extreme weather events while industrialised nations are wary of creating a fund because of the liabilities they may face.

Aboulmagd said as the incoming COP president, Egypt needs to “navigate” the disparate positions and that it has appointed two ministers to come up with a plan for how to include “loss and damage” on COP27’s formal agenda. The two ministers are Germany’s special envoy for international climate action, Jennifer Morgan, and Chile’s environment minister, Maisa Rojas.

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EurActiv, 30 Sep 2022: Egypt pushes ‘loss and damage’ at top of UN climate summit agenda