Loss and damage fund alone ‘insufficient’ to meet climate challenge: France’s Macron

A fund for “loss and damage” to help developing countries deal with climate catastrophes is “largely insufficient”, French President Emmanuel Macron said Saturday, as delegations seek agreement at COP27 UN climate talks in Egypt.

“The idea of a single fund is at best inappropriate, at worst largely insufficient,” he told journalists in Tunisia, echoing previous comments he has made about the need to revamp the global financial architecture.

“When we have a problem, we create funds… what is the governance? Who will put in the money?” he said from Djerba, where he is attending a summit of French-speaking countries.

Nearly 200 countries’ representatives have gathered at the COP27 in Egypt for two weeks with the aim of driving forward action to fight climate change as the world faces a worsening onslaught of weather extremes.

But the talks stalled over the terms under which wealthy polluters provide “loss and damage” funding for developing countries wracked by climate disasters, as well as over ratcheting up ambition in tackling global warming.

After the European Union roundly rejected a document shown by Egypt overnight because of concerns it was weak on curbing emissions, a source from the bloc said at least the loss and damage issue was “agreed” as far as it was concerned.

A European source confirmed “a deal has been reached on loss and damage which targets the fund to vulnerable countries”.

The agreement was still subject to confirmation at a closing meeting.