Climate damage fund trumps 1.5C push as COP27 summit nears end

In its closing hours, the COP27 climate talks appeared set to create a long-sought fund to tackle “loss and damage” from climate change but progress on cutting emissions and moving away from fossil fuels was proving hard to win, policy experts said.
A draft agreement at the summit in gas-rich Egypt emphasised the tough economic and geopolitical situation many countries face, even as they are battered harder by more extreme weather and threatened by rising seas.
The draft deal, which nearly 200 countries need to adopt by consensus, noted that “the impacts of climate change exacerbate the global energy and food crises, and vice versa, particularly in developing countries”.
Simon Lewis, a professor of global change science at University College London, said economic pressures have grown on governments since COP26 in Glasgow, where countries were urged to ramp up efforts to limit global warming to the most-ambitious Paris Agreement goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The invasion of Ukraine by oil and gas giant Russia – sparking sanctions – has hiked energy prices while warming-fuelled disasters have added another layer of crisis, he said.