(1st UPDATE) With several other sticking points dogging this year’s UN climate talks, host country Egypt says a final deal is still not expected before the weekend
[OPINION] How COP27 impacts the Philippines
[OPINION] How COP27 impacts the Philippines
The 2022 UN climate negotiations (COP27) have finally concluded. For the past two weeks, more than 35,000 delegates representing governments, civil society, and businesses convened in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt to decide how to implement the Paris Agreement, the global treaty that targets limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Among the priority issues on the Philippine agenda at COP27 include loss and damage, adaptation, and finance. With warming at slightly above 1 degree Celsius, our nation and other vulnerable countries are already struggling to deal with the impacts of the climate crisis and are seeking urgent solutions at the global scale.
The question should now be asked: are the decisions at COP27 enough to put the Philippines on a path to sustainable development in the era of the climate emergency?
On loss and damage (L&D)
Arguably the most controversial issue in the Egypt climate summit is on financing solutions to address L&D. The Philippines joined other developing countries in lobbying to establish a finance facility to provide restitution and support for communities gravely hit by typhoons, droughts, sea level rise, and other impacts.
For the first time in history, Parties agreed to establish an L&D fund to aid vulnerable nations deal with extreme impacts. The decision text does not state how this mechanism would be funded or when and how it would become operational. Such details need to be ironed out in the next few months, especially as climate-related disasters continue to hit highly vulnerable communities worldwide.
Nevertheless, this is seen as a huge victory for nations like the Philippines that for decades have been fighting for support to address L&D. The G77 negotiating bloc of developing nations played a huge role in securing this outcome, including the commendable work of Filipino lawyer Vicente Yu, the bloc’s coordinator on L&D.
On adaptation
At COP27, a new Sharm-El-Sheikh Adaptation Agenda was launched aiming to enhance the climate resilience of 4 billion people by 2030. It consists of 30 outcomes that cover a wide range of actions, including on sustainable agriculture and food production, protection and restoration of land and freshwater ecosystems like mangroves, early warning systems, and access to clean cooking.
Adaptation remains the Philippines’s anchor strategy against the climate crisis. Moving forward, government representatives need to remain active in multilateral partnerships including the Adaptation Agenda for securing the necessary support our nation needs. They also need to keep on actively influencing the development of a roadmap to ensure that developed nations deliver on their pledge from last year’s climate summit to double adaptation finance for vulnerable countries.