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COP27: A lot of noise for nothing?

By Damien Glez

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Posted on November 22, 2022 11:45

 © Image by Damien Glez
Image by Damien Glez

The world climate conference ended on Sunday with a historic agreement on aid to poor countries and a stalemate in the fight against global warming. Should Africa be rejoicing after the high-level meeting in Sharm El-Sheikh?

Environmentalists – even the least radical – had been sceptical about the 27th World Climate Summit, with previous conferences having been over-mediatised as they were underwhelming in terms of concrete effects. This time, however, the most proactive among them had promised the world inevitable decisions at this meeting, which was described as the “last chance” before the irreparable.

They had specifically reassured Africans that the meeting’s location in Egypt would guarantee that particular effects of climate degradation on our planet’s southern regions would be taken into account…

Climate debt and new promises

Now the lanterns are out and citizens of Africa seem “happily surprised”, as the Swiss say. Those looking at the conclusions of COP27 through an African lens point to a supposedly historic breakthrough: the 196 countries represented decided to set up a “loss and damage” fund

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