Loss and Damage in (Para 44-47) Sharm el-Sheikh Implementation Plan Draft decision

The draft decision on Sharm el-Sheikh Implementation Plan of COP-27 deals with Loss and Damage caused by unsound and unsustainable industrial and developmental practices of some 40 countries since the beginning of the industrial revolution. Out of 94 paragraphs of the draft decision, paragraphs 44-47 deals with loss and damage. It notes with grave concern, according to information in the contributions of Working Groups II and III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the growing gravity, scope and frequency in all regions of loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change, resulting in devastating economic and non-economic losses, including forced displacement and impacts on cultural heritage, human mobility and the lives and livelihoods of local communities, and underlines the importance of an adequate and effective response to loss and damage.

The draft decision expresses deep concern regarding the significant financial costs associated with loss and damage for developing countries, resulting in a growing debt burden and impairing the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals.

It welcomes the consideration, for the first time, of matters relating to funding arrangements responding to loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change, including a focus on addressing loss and damage, under the Conference of the Parties and the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement and also welcomes the adoption of decisions on matters relating to funding arrangements responding to loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change.

It also welcomes the adoption of decisions establishing the institutional arrangements of the Santiago network for averting, minimizing and addressing loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change to enable its full operationalization, including supporting its mandated role in catalysing technical assistance for the implementation of the relevant approaches at the local, national and regional level in developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change, and affirms its determination to select the host of the secretariat of the Santiago network by 2023 through a selection process conducted in an open, transparent, fair and neutral manner.