EU proposal at COP27 for climate damage fund piles pressure on China

On the final day of Cop27 climate talks in Egypt, an EU proposal to break a deadlock on financial help for poor nations ravaged by climate change has piled pressure on big-polluting developing countries such as China to pitch in.

European Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans on Friday said the EU would agree to a loss and damage fund – a core demand of the G77 group of developing countries plus China – to be fed by “a large donor base”.

China has so far avoided any obligation to provide climate finance to vulnerable countries despite being the world's biggest carbon emitter and the second-largest economy in the world.

Outdated climate framework

Under the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, China is still classed as a developing nation.

Timmermans told journalists the loss and damage fund should fall under the Paris Agreement and take account of the economic situations of countries in 2022 and not 1992, as the per G77 proposal.

“There we have a disagreement but I hope our honest proposal could really bridge a gap,” Timmermans said when asked by RFI if China would be made to pay.

“The European Union has made huge steps forward and in any negotiation if you make steps forward and the other side doesn't budge at some point it ends," Timmermans said.

“This is an offer we put on the table that I think is very far-reaching and I hope it is appreciated rightly on the other side of the argument.”

Timmermans said that over the past two weeks the EU had worked hard to break the deadlock on loss and damage – a thorny issue that stands in the way of negotiators in Egypt reaching a final climate deal.

“We've made our proposal now … it's about time the other side started moving as well.”