A long overdue recognition of climate damages

The most important outcome overall was the establishment of a fund for so-called “Loss and Damage,” a tool to help low-income countries to deal with the impacts of climate change. This issue has been neglected by rich countries for decades and progress was long overdue. Robert Stavin’s blog post deals excellently with this topic, which has been controversial as countries have not been able to agree on who should pay for such loss and damage. Poorer countries have suggested that those most responsible for climate change, that is the countries with the largest accumulated (historical + current) emissions of GHGs – the United States, EU, and other large, wealthy countries, plus, importantly, China. Countries have not agreed on all the details of this fund and it remains to be seen whether it is merely an empty shell or whether it will help move us towards a more equitable system for compensating for loss and damage caused by global climate change.

Carbon removal - much talk, little action…

At COP27, carbon removal was more central than at previous COPs. At the conference participants agreed to “elaborate and further develop recommendations on activities involving removals, including appropriate monitoring, reporting, accounting for removals and crediting periods, addressing reversals, avoidance of leakage, and avoidance of other negative environmental and social impact.” However, in plain language, it was a bit disappointing, as no clear definition for carbon removal was achieved, while countries could not agree on a transparent mechanism to implement Article 6. The slow pace of progress on this is concerning. Though a complex matter, failure to gain clarity could create uncertainty in the voluntary carbon market. Therefore, it’s quite important that momentum is built before next year’s meeting, particularly around the technical working groups, to ensure that COP28 can deliver on carbon removal and address the outstanding questions around MRV, implementation and the link between the voluntary market and the Paris Agreement mechanisms.

COP28 - the carbon removal COP?

Although carbon removal is central to achieving net-zero and mitigating climate change, the carbon removal space still operates somewhat separately from the broader climate change agenda. Significant work is thus required - both within the carbon removal industry and within the climate change community - to mainstream CDR into the broader mitigation discussions at the COP. The decision text adopted at COP (the so-called Article 6.4) provides guidance and gives the Scientific Body - the experts working on this topic within UNFCCC - the time and mandate to “elaborate and further develop” the work on carbon removal in the lead-up to COP28. Eve Tamme’s blog post is successfully diving further into this topic. Next year’s COP, hosted by the United Arab Emirates, is expected to include a greater focus on CCUS, including carbon removal. Significant progress is thus expected within the carbon removal industry in 2023 - both in the technical negotiations leading up to COP28 and as a result of the upcoming EU certification framework for carbon removals. More on the latter in the next post.

Feedback and comments are essential. Shout out to Eve Tamme, Robert Stavins, and other climate change and carbon removal experts including the Klimate team for further insights.

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