Cop27: 'Loss and damage' deal clouded by 'lack of urgency' over reducing emissions

Climate activists from the Ocean Rebellion group demonstrate against the use of fossil fuels outside the offices of the International Maritime Organisation in London today. Photo: Daniel Leal/AFP via Getty Images

There has been a mixed reaction from Irish scientists following Cop27, with praise for the deal on "loss and damage", but bitter disappointment over emissions reduction progress.

The Irish contingent at the UN climate change summit in Egypt, led by Environment Minister Eamon Ryan and a team of civil servants, has been hailed across the board for taking a lead role in striking a deal on so-called loss and damage.

Loss and damage - ostensibly richer countries paying a significant share to more vulnerable countries to compensate for the climate change-related disasters already occurring and which cannot be avoided even with defences - looked unlikely until the last minute at the Sharm-el-Sheikh event.

The conference was due to finish on Friday, but negotiations continued into the early hours of Sunday morning when the deal was finally struck.

However, the watering down of language surrounding fossil fuel usage in the future, and the influential role played by fossil fuel interests as a whole at Cop27, had led to trenchant criticism from environmentalists who say that progress on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, a major driver of global warming, was not nearly enough.

Maynooth University professor of geography and climate change, Peter Thorne, told the Irish Examiner that the Cop27 event was a "mixed bag".

"From a parochial viewpoint, we should be cheering the Irish delegation and Mr Ryan to the rafters. Their leadership of the EU team unlocked the loss and damage issue that has bedeviled the process for 30 years. That will be a lasting and enduring legacy in terms of recognising that those most impacted are those least responsible and that financial assistance must flow accordingly."

However, nothing substantial happened on emissions, he warned. 

"There are still a handful of countries who are blocking the agreement that is patently obvious - that we need to rapidly phase down and ultimately phase out fossil fuel use, particularly so unabated fossil fuel use. 

Climate activists protest outside the Sharm el-Sheikh International Convention Centre during the Cop27 climate conference on November 11. Photo: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP

"Equally, arguably the unprovoked war in Ukraine and its ramifications are accelerating a transition regardless. But it could be faster, and we need greater honesty from the handful of states that are stopping this development," he said.

Student at University College Cork's (UCC) Environmental Research Institue and environmental technologist, Rajas Shinde, who attended Cop27, said the loss and damage deal seemed artificial in many ways.

"While it is positive that an agreement was reached on the loss and damage fund in the end, it comes across as an insincere effort to get a token success story out of Cop27."

How the fund will operate in years to come has been left up in the air, he said.

"More delay gives an opportunity for the countries that obstructed the deal in the first place to prepare for ways to dampen the implementation of the fund," he added. Hopes for stronger language on keeping the 1.5C goal alive after Cop26 in Glasgow were let down, he said.

A 1.5C temperature rise is considered the limit by scientists to avoid the very worst of climate change.

Mr Shinde said: "There were neither increased ambitions set, nor the proposal for phasing out of all fossil fuels agreed upon to limit emissions which cause global warming. With this lack of urgency and stringent measures to take actions, the hopes of the most vulnerable and especially the youth are largely lost and damaged."

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