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Historic ‘loss and damage’ fund adopted at COP27 climate summit

Published

4 years ago

2022/11/21

(Al Jazeera) Countries at the United Nations COP27 climate summit in Egypt have adopted a final agreement that establishes a fund to help poor nations cope with the extreme weather events caused by global warming.

Following tense negotiations that ran through the night, the summit’s Egyptian presidency released a draft text of the overall agreement early on Sunday and also called a plenary session to push the document through as the final, overarching agreement for the UN summit.The plenary session approved the document’s provision to establish a “loss and damage” fund to help developing countries bear the immediate costs of climate-fuelled events such as storms and floods.

However, many of the more contentious issues regarding the fund were pushed into talks to be held next year, when a “transitional committee” will make recommendations for countries to then adopt at the COP28 climate summit in November 2023.The recommendations will cover “identifying and expanding sources of funding”, which refers to the vexed question of which countries should pay into the new “loss and damage” fund.

Still, the adoption of the fund is a big win for poorer nations which have long called for financial compensation because they are often the victims of climate change – such as worsened floods, droughts, heat waves, famines and storms – despite having contributed little to the pollution that is heating up the planet.

“This loss and damage fund will be a lifeline for poor families whose houses are destroyed, farmers whose fields are ruined, and islanders forced from their ancestral homes,” said Ani Dasgupta, president of the environmental think-tank World Resources Institute, minutes after the early morning approval was announced.Calls by developing countries for such a fund have dominated the two-week summit, pushing the talks past their scheduled finish on Friday.

“This is how a 30-year-old journey of ours has finally, we hope, found fruition today,” Pakistan Climate Minister Sherry Rehman said.

One-third of her nation was submerged this summer by a devastating flood and she and other officials used the motto: “What went on in Pakistan will not stay in Pakistan.”

Collins Nzovu, Zambia’s minister of green economy and environment, said he was “excited, very, very excited”.

“Very exciting because for us, success in Egypt was going to be based on what we get from loss and damage,” he said.

“This positive outcome from COP27 is an important step toward rebuilding trust with vulnerable countries.”

According to the agreement, the fund would initially draw on contributions from developed countries and other private and public sources such as international financial institutions.While major emerging economies such as China would not initially be required to contribute, that option remains on the table and will be negotiated over the coming years.

This is a key demand by the European Union and the United States, who argue that China and other large polluters currently classified as developing countries have the financial clout and responsibility to pay their share.The fund would be largely aimed at the most vulnerable nations, though there would be room for middle-income countries that are severely battered by climate disasters to get aid.

Experts said the adoption of the fund was a reflection of what can be done when the poorest nations remain unified.

“I think this is huge to have governments coming together to actually work out at least the first step of … how to deal with the issue of loss and damage,” said Alex Scott, a climate diplomacy expert at the think-tank E3G.But, like all climate financials, it is one thing to create a fund and another to get money flowing in and out, she said.

The developed world still has not kept its 2009 pledge to spend $100bn a year in other climate aid – designed to help poor nations develop green energy and adapt to future warming.

“In many ways, we’re talking about reparations,” said University of Maryland environmental health and justice professor Sacoby Wilson.

“It’s an appropriate term to use,” he said, because rich northern countries had received the benefits of fossil fuels, while the poorer global south nations were suffering the effects of climate change.

Some delegates meanwhile said the approved deal does not do enough to boost efforts to tackle the emissions that cause global warming.

It did not contain a reference requested by India and some other delegations to the phasing down use of “all fossil fuels”.

It instead called on countries to take steps toward “the phasedown of unabated coal power and phase-out of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies,” as agreed at the COP26 Glasgow summit.The draft also included a reference to “low-emissions energy”, raising concern among some that it opened the door to the growing use of natural gas – a fossil fuel that leads to both carbon dioxide and methane emissions.

Norway’s Climate Minister Espen Barth Eide told reporters his team had hoped for a stronger agreement. “It does not break with Glasgow completely, but it doesn’t raise ambition at all,” he said.

“I think they had another focus. They were very focused on the fund,” he said.

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BASL challenges NPP MP to repeat false claims outside Parliament

Published

8 hours ago

2026/07/27

Thilina Walpola

The Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) has challenged NPP MP Asitha Niroshana Egoda Vithana to repeat what it called a false claim made in Parliament about anagreement between SJB leader Sajith Premadasa and BASL President Rajeev Amarasuriya.

The Colombo District MP Vithana alleged that Amarasuriya had recently received an assurance from Premadasa, who is also the Opposition Leader, that he (Amarasuirya) would be fielded as the SJB Chief Ministerial candidate at the Western Province PC polls in return for BASL campaigning against the government’s move to extend the retirement age of the superior court judges.

A top BASL spokesman told The Island that in case the lawmaker repeated the allegation outside Parliament, without the cover of parliamentary privilege, due legal consequences would follow.

The text of the statement: “The Bar Association of Sri Lanka (“BASL”) views with deep dismay the false utterances made today in Parliament by

Government Member of Parliament Mr. Asitha Niroshana Egoda Withanage regarding the President of the BASL, Mr. Rajeev Amarasuriya.

The BASL categorically states that the allegations are utterly false, baseless, and made with malicious intent.

The BASL is deeply concerned by the abuse of parliamentary privilege to make unfounded and defamatory false utterances, thereby seeking to mislead and misguide the public.

Furthermore, such cheap political attacks on the BASL will not succeed. The legal fraternity of Sri Lanka stands united and will face any challenge to its independence and integrity.

In respect of the proposal to increase the retirement age of the Judges of the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court, it has been the firm view of the Bar that constitutional amendments affecting the Superior Courts should never be undertaken in an ad hoc manner or in response to temporary circumstances. Amendments of such constitutional importance should only be introduced where there exists a demonstrable institutional necessity, transparent public justification and broad and defensible stakeholder consultation. Public confidence in constitutional governance depends upon the process adopted as much as the substance of the amendment itself.

The BASL has, throughout its history, stood firm against any threat to democracy, the independence of the judiciary, and the Human Rights of the people including the right to protest. The BASL has spoken out without fear or favour, regardless of which government is in power. The legal community is well aware that the BASL does not, and will not, play politics.

The BASL challenges Member of Parliament Mr. Asitha Niroshana Egoda Withanage to repeat the said false utterance outside Parliament without the cover of Parliamentary Privilege so that due Legal Consequences can follow.”

News

Judges’ retirement age row: Govt.-BASL powwow on the cards

Published

8 hours ago

2026/07/27

Thilina Walpola

Harshana

By Shamindra Ferdinando ✍️

Justice Minister Harshana Nanayakkara will meet a delegation from the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) this week to discuss the government’s hotly disputed decision to introduce a constitutional amendment to increase the retirement ages of judges of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal.

Both the Justice and National Integration Ministry and the BASL confirmed the scheduled meeting.

The BASL, in a letter dated 16 July, 2026, addressed to Minister Nanayakkara, who is also an Attorney-at-Law, requested that a delegation, consisting of members of the executive committee of the BASL, and senior members of the profession, be granted an opportunity to discuss the issues at hand.

Responding to The Island queries, sources revealed that the government, with an overwhelming 2/3 majority in Parliament, was determined to go ahead with the controversial constitutional amendment, whereas the BASL, too, remained inflexible in its opposition to the move.

The BASL reiterated that as emphasised in their 16 July dated letter, addressed to Minister Nanayakkara, the premier legal body expected the government to put on hold the process until meaningful consultations take place among principal stakeholders of the justice sector.

The BASL wrote to Minister Nanayakkara on 30 March, 2026, seeking clarifi-cation regarding the proposed constitutional amendment and in the absence of response, raised the issue with President Anura Kumara Dissanayake on 25 May, 2026. Sources said that the President, too, refrained from responding to the BASL’s letter and they didn’t have any other option than stepping up pressure.

News

Organised motorcycle theft gang apprehended

Published

8 hours ago

2026/07/27

Thilina Walpola

By S.K. Samaranayake ✍️

A team of police officers, led by Kadawatha Police Station Chief Inspector Buddhika Rajapaksha, has arrested two members of an organised motorcycle theft gang, along with three stolen motorcycles, and 14 grams of heroin, in their possession.

The Kadawatha Police are conducting investigations to arrest another suspect connected to the gang. Police stated that the suspects had concealed the stolen motorcycles at their residences in Eldeniya, Kadawatha. Further investigations are being carried out by the Kadawatha Police to determine whether the suspects are addicted to drugs.

Under the supervision of Senior Superintendent of Police, Nuvan Asanga, the Kadawatha Police are conducting further investigations to ascertain whether the suspects have stolen any other motorcycles.