Botswana has expressed “ecstasy” about the decisions taken at the just ended 27th session of the Conference of the Parties, commonly known as COP27 on climate change, an official said Monday.
Updating local journalists on the decisions taken at the climate change conference, which took place in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, on Nov.6-18, Botswana’s Minister of Environment and Tourism Philda Kereng said a wider range of issues were negotiated.
“Botswana’s participation at the COP27 was fantastic and delighting because both state and non-state actors were represented equally to negotiate global reporting on national climate change efforts and how to finance such efforts,” Kereng told a media briefing in Gaborone, the capital of Botswana.
Kereng said an agreement to establish the first ever dedicated fund for loss and damage is a welcome development for Botswana.
She said the envisaged fund will assist developing countries with financial and technical support to rescue and rebuild the physical and social infrastructure of developing countries devastated by extreme weather events.
Such events, which include climate-related emergencies, sea level rise, displacement, relocation, migration, insufficient climate information, and data, or the need for climate-resilient reconstruction and recovery are devastating developing countries, Kereng said.
She noted that new pledges, totaling more than 230 million U.S. dollars, were made to the Adaptation Fund at COP27, a small sum given the scale of the needs in developing countries.
COP27 also urged developed countries to lay down a clear roadmap on mobilizing 100 billion dollars a year by 2024/5, Kereng said.
Speaking at the same event, Tebogo Moyo, an advisor at non-governmental organization Ambassadors of Climate Change, said parties agreed to initiate the development of a framework for the global goal of adaptation to be undertaken through a long-term structured approach.
The approach will be initiated under the Glasgow-Sharm El-Sheikh work program in 2023, with a view for the framework being adopted at the next climate change conference.
COP28 will convene from Nov. 30 to Dec. 12, 2023, in the United Arab Emirates. The COP is the global decision-making body of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Enditem
