T&T’s delegation at the 27th Conference of Parties (COP27) held its final briefing yesterday ahead of high-level negotiations that are set to start tomorrow in Sharm el-Sheikh where the United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference is being held.
Led by the Minister of Planning and Development, Penelope Beckles, the T&T delegation also includes the country’s lead climate negotiator, Kishan Kumarsingh. Guardian Media had access to the briefing on Saturday which was held at the Caricom pavilion at the conference.
In some brief remarks following the meeting, Kumarsingh said the good news among the bad is that the global stocktake negotiations have concluded. The global stocktake is geared at informing parties that the world is on track to achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement and what course correction is needed.
As Kumarsingh and minister Beckles sit down at the global negotiations from tomorrow, Kumarsingh pointed out the issues that are most central to this country in what will be a critical week. He said, “Adaptation is critical for us. The issues related to loss and damage, while it was a win for us in the adoption of the agenda, the elaboration of the details in terms of what is required now in the next steps remains undecided. The main issue for us is the financing for loss and damage.”
Loss and damage funding has emerged as the core issue in Sharm el-Sheikh and as it is moved on to the political level in the coming days, Kumarsingh hopes the outcome “will be consistent with the success we have had in the adoption of the agenda.” He said that he hopes by the end of COP27, small island states can have some type of funding that will aid in recovering from the effects of climate change throughout the year.
Negotiators spent most of yesterday working to draft deals on several issues that they will put to ministers this week in the hope of getting a substantial result by the end of the conference in Egypt. The first of the two-week meeting in Egypt began with world leaders calling for greater efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions and help poor nations cope with global warming. According to the Associated Press, keeping cool, cutting emissions, the US-China relations, shunning fossil fuels, compensation and cash donors are among the big items to be negotiated over the next week.
This story was originally published on The Trinidad and Tobago Guardian, with the support of Climate Tracker’s COP27 Climate Justice Journalism Fellowship.
