Monitoring Desk
SHARM EL-SHEIKH: Around 200 countries got into a historic deal at the COP27 summit to help the underdeveloped countries suffering from climate-induced disasters, but couldn’t come up with a wider agreement to counter climate change as a whole.
After a tense overnight debate, the Egyptian COP27 presidency on Sunday morning released a draft text for an overall agreement and called for a plenary session to finalize what was the last deal of the summit. Subsequently, the assembly approved setting up a “loss and damage” fund to assist poor countries to cater for the immediate damages of climatic disasters such as floods and storms.
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COP27 ends with a huge victory for poor nations
The landmark deal signed was a huge victory for underdeveloped nations who – for over a decade – have been asking for help with such a fund for rescue and rehabilitation purposes amid climate-related disasters. However, rich countries had till date rejected the demands, instead confining to the provision of limited monetary supply.
The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres hailed the decision, calling it an “an important step towards justice”.
Vulnerable Nations Suffered as Carbon Emitters Made Billions in Profit
As Pakistan – a country with almost non-existent contribution in global carbon emissions – was suffering from one of the most devastating floods of its history, six energy firms: ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, BP, Saudi Aramco and Total Energies earned $97.49 billion in profits from July to September 2022. Same has been the case with other developing states all over the globe who suffered the disastrous effects of global warming as commercial giants multiplied their earnings.
Poorer nations as well as multiple world leaders have been demanding fossil fuel companies to pay a bonus profits tax, with many also asking for an additional fund from rich nations – that had contributed the most in greenhouse gases – to pay the victims of human-induced climate change.
