The curtain has come down at the 27th UN Climate Change Conference of Parties with mixed outcomes for advancing climate justice. Governments have left women and girls, who are the most impacted by the effects of climate change on the margins of climate action, according to CARE International. On three key topics in CARE’s focus – loss and damage, climate finance, and gender – only loss and damage saw significant progress. In addition to the negotiation outcomes, various countries announced new bi- and multilateral initiatives which can advance the implementation of climate action. However, financial pledges made by specific countries to loss and damage fail to be additional to adaptation finance.
Loss and Damage
“After a long and hard fight led by vulnerable countries and civil society organizations, not only has loss and damage finance made it for the first time on a COP agenda but developed countries have agreed to the establishment of a much-sought Loss and Damage Fund. Although the details of the financing mechanism remain to be elaborated and the fund will be operationalized by 2023, this decision demonstrates that the call of vulnerable for climate justice has finally been heard and acted upon”, said Fanny Petitbon, Advocacy Manager at CARE France.
Climate Finance
“Negotiations at COP27 were hampered by rich countries not living up to their financial obligations. They should provide 100 billion USD a year in new and additional finance for mitigation and adaptation in developing countries. The lack of delivery has created distrust and COP27 was expected to establish a clear plan for delivery, and to ensure that the shortfall is provided in the coming years. Unfortunately, developed countries got away with deleting those key elements from the texts, leaving us with only a vague call on rich countries to meet the goal with no deadline set”, said Marlene Achoki, Global Policy Co-Lead Climate Justice at CARE.
Gender
Two weeks of negotiations on the Gender Action Plan (GAP) review ended with no substantial progress.
“Negotiations on the Gender Action Plan at COP27 have not served the purpose of advancing gender equality in climate action, they have not served women and girls at the frontline of the climate crisis. Far too long countries battled over financial support for the GAP implementation, with an agreement only in the last minute. We expect all countries to now prioritise gender considerations in their climate action.” Said Rosa Van Driel, Advocacy Officer at CARE Netherlands.
Furthermore, CARE comments on the adaptation, mitigation, and food security outcomes:
“After two weeks of intense negotiations, notable progress was achieved by parties to initiate the development of a framework for the global goal on adaptation and this will be adopted in November 2023 at the next COP. However, it is disappointing that no delivery plan was agreed for doubling of adaptation finance by 2025 as per the COP26 Glasgow Pact”, said Obed Koringo, Climate Policy Advisor at CARE Denmark/Kenya.
Sven Harmeling, Global Policy Co-Lead on Climate Change and Resilience at CARE, said “COP26 mandated countries to elaborate a work programme to scale up mitigation for 2030 as there is a big gap between the 1.5°C limit and the policies that are on the table. While the Parties eventually managed to agree the mitigation work programme, we are disappointed that it fails to call more clearly for the phase-out of all fossil fuels and shift to 100% renewable energies.”
Gregory Spira Head of Gender, Food & Climate Justice Programs at CARE Canada “Food Security and Food Systems are mentioned once in the cover decision which recognizes that agriculture follows distinct models in global north and global south. However, no specific actions were agreed, and the framing of the text makes no connection to the key role that women smallholder farmers play in ensuring Food Security in countries around the world. There is also only extremely vague guidance on how discussions on Agriculture and Food Security will be continued beyond COP27.”
For media inquiries, please contact Walter Mawere, Global Communications Lead for CARE Climate Justice Center, [email protected].