News Highlight
At the recently concluded COP27 summit, delegates from the United Nations agreed to create a Loss and Damages Fund.
Key Takeaway
- The fund will compensate the most vulnerable countries for their losses due to climate-related disasters.
Loss and Damages Fund
- About
- It will support developing countries in efforts to avert, minimise and address loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change in the light of continued global warming.
- Proposal for the fund
- The proposal for a loss and damage finance facility was put forward by the G77 and China (India is part of this group), least-developed countries and small island states.
- Corpus
- The expected monetary compensation from the L&D fund is estimated to be nearly $500 billion and rising by $200 billion annually.
- Establishing a transitional committee
- The committee will decide the modalities, sources etc. which will be considered at COP28 in November–December 2023.
- It will have 23 members, comprising ten members from developed country Parties and 13 members from developing country Parties.
- The Committee will consider
- Establishing institutional arrangements, modalities, structure, governance and terms of reference of the fund
- Defining the elements of the new funding arrangements
- Identifying and expanding sources of funding
- Ensuring coordination and complementarity with existing funding arrangements.
The Conference of the Parties (COP)
- About
- COP is the apex decision-making authority of the United Nations Climate Change Framework Convention (UNFCCC).
- The Conference of Parties comes under the UNFCCC, which was formed in 1994.
- The COP meets every year.
- The first COP meeting was held in Berlin, Germany, in March 1995.
- The COP President:
- The office of the COP President typically rotates among the five United Nations regional groups:
- Africa
- Asia
- Latin America and the Caribbean
- Central and Eastern Europe
- Western Europe and Others
COP26 or The Glasgow meeting.
- Place:
- It was hosted by the UK in partnership with Italy and took place from 31 October to 12 November 2021 in the Scottish Event Campus (SEC) in Glasgow, UK.
- Four goals of COP26:
- Secure global net zero by mid-century and keep 1.5 degrees within reach.
- Adapt to protect communities and natural habitats.
- Mobilise finance
- Finalise the Paris Rulebook
COP27
About
At the Sharm el-Sheikh, Climate Change Conference (COP 27), countries came together to take action towards achieving the world’s collective climate goals as agreed upon under the Paris Agreement and the Convention.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
- About
- It was signed in 1992 at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, also known as the Earth Summit, the Rio Summit or the Rio Conference.
- Members:
- The UNFCCC entered into force on 21st March 1994 and was ratified by 197 countries.
- The UNFCCC secretariat:
- The UNFCCC secretariat (UN Climate Change) is the United Nations entity tasked with supporting the global response to the threat of climate change.
- It is located in Bonn, Germany.
- Objective:
- To achieve stabilisation of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.
- India and UNFCCC:
- India ratified the UNFCCC in 1993.
- The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) acts as the nodal agency for UNFCCC in India.
Content Source: The Hindu