The fight against climate change must happen every day not just at COP

SCIAF’s Advocacy Officers, Ben Wilson and Anne Callaghan, reflect on the last two weeks at COP27 and the agreement reached in the early hours of this morning.

The COP27 climate conference in Egypt finally concluded in the early hours of Sunday 20^th November, achieving a historic agreement to establish a fund for climate damages – known as Loss and Damage.

COP27 achieved a landmark victory in securing the establishment of a fund for Loss and Damage - UN jargon for climate impacts and the responsibility of polluters to pay for the damage they have caused. Every year 189 million people have their lives or livelihoods devastated by the impacts of Loss and Damage, landing developing countries with the costs and an increased debt burden. The issue of Loss and Damage is one that SCIAF made a priority for our advocacy work, informed by what our partners were calling for. Civil society globally worked with the G77 countries to present a united front in calling for this Loss and Damage Fund – in the face of significant opposition from the USA and the EU, amongst others.

At the Climate conference, SCIAF staff and our partners have been working together with our networks: the global Catholic network Caritas Internationalis and CIDSE, our European Catholic colleagues, to influence proceedings in Egypt. We have met country delegations, organised side-events and offered technical support to negotiators from developing countries, helping them be better placed to make their case in the negotiation rooms. 

Since the first UN agreement on climate change more than 30 years ago, the Global South has cried out for climate justice and to ensure that those responsible for this crisis must pay for their pollution. With the historic agreement at COP27 to establish a fund for Loss & Damage, we finally have global recognition that polluters must pay. 

As always, the devil will be in the detail, and there are more fights to come over what precisely this fund will look like and how exactly it’s funded. It’s vital to agree that significant cash is raised fast, that they are in the form of grants not loans, and that money will flow quickly to people already suffering from climate change. But with the establishment of the Loss & Damage Fund, today is a rare occasion when we can celebrate progress in the fight against climate change, and the fight for global justice.

Yet despite this, COP27 did not make the progress needed to phase out all fossil fuels and get us on track to controlling global heating. The more fossil fuels we burn, the more the planet will warm, and the more people will suffer – it’s as simple as that. The fight for Loss & Damage finance has been long, and finally a breakthrough has been achieved. The fight against fossil fuels and to control global temperature increases as quickly as possible goes on.

Nevertheless, COP27 can be a source of hope. With your support, and working with others, SCIAF has focused on the issue of Loss & Damage since early 2020, firstly campaigning for the Scottish Government to champion this issue (which it did at COP26), then bringing the Scottish example to global forums to inspire others to follow. Whilst the outcome on COP27 on fossil fuels is disappointing, our key take-away from this should be that we must continue to fight for climate justice everywhere, every day – we do not need to wait for the COP to act at home. But all things considered, with the historic agreement on Loss & Damage, COP27 can be a source of optimism, that change is possible when we put out minds to it, work together with broad coalitions and are led by the Global South.