This was a crucial issue at COP27. The European Union and certain Member States will together pay more than one billion euros to help Africa adapt to climate change, European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans announced on Wednesday.
“Together, the European Union and four Member States – France, Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark – will provide more than one billion euros to support adaptation in Africa”, he announced during the COP27 in Egypt. This initiative must mobilize new and existing adaptation programs, the Commission said in a press release, without specifying what proportion was new.
Climate loss and damage
These funds should be used to collect data on climate risks, to strengthen early warning systems to warn populations of an impending disaster and to help mobilize finance – including private finance – on the climate issue. Finally, they must strengthen insurance mechanisms against unavoidable risks, detailed Frans Timmermans.
Some of this money will be directed towards losses and damages already suffered by the continent, he said. The financing of the “losses and damages” suffered by the countries of the South in the face of the impacts of global warming is one of the subjects that divide at COP27. The European Union has specified that 60 million euros will be specifically intended for this damage already suffered.
“Everyone should be in the system”
In another statement, Frans Timmermans on the other hand rejected a proposal from the G77 + China group, which represents more than 130 emerging and poor countries, on the creation from COP27 of a specific financial fund to compensate for the damage. He said the EU would make its own proposal, offering to complete negotiations on financing such “loss and damage” within a year and insisting that China be on the side of the contributors.
The G77 + China proposal “starts from a situation of 30 years ago, not from 2022, and if you freeze things at 1992, then countries which today have enormous financial means, which have had a very strong growth, would be exempt from contributing to support the most vulnerable. I find that unacceptable,” he told reporters. “Everyone should be in the system based on their current position,” he insisted.