Understanding the EU's Role in Forming the Loss and Damage Fund at COP27 in Egypt
Thursday, February 6, 2025
11:30 am – 1:00 pm EST/GMT-5 11:30 AM New York l 5:30 PM Vienna
The Open Society Hub for the Politics of the Anthropocene presents a discussion on "Understanding the EU's role in Forming the "Loss and Damage Fund" at COP27 in Egypt."
Loss and Damage (L&D) usually refers to the excessive destruction caused by climate change effects despite mitigation and adaptation efforts. At UNFCCC COP27 in Egypt, a landmark deal was agreed to construct a fund that would distribute L&D funding to vulnerable countries from the Global South. The European Union was among the first from the Global North to accept the proposal but the establishment of this fund has long been a red line for the EU’s negotiation strategy.
This seminar with Michal Kolmaš asks why did the EU accept the proposal, even though it remained convinced that the existing infrastructure was better suited to deal with the issue? Kolmaš argues that the EU accepted the proposal for three different but interrelated reasons. These findings shed light on the often hidden mechanisms of climate diplomacy and provide a first hand experience of the Loss and Damage negotiations at COP27 in Egypt.
Michal Kolmaš is an Associate Professor of International Relations at the Metropolitan University Prague, Editor-in-Chief of the Czech Journal of International Relations (CJIR), and an Associate Editor of the Journal of International Relations and Development (JIRD). Previously, he was a visiting fellow at Umass Boston, Hokkaido University and Ritsumeikan APU in Japan.