This year’s COP27 climate gathering in Egypt inspired both celebration and disappointment. While the establishment of a Loss and Damage fund was a major victory, patchy follow-through on earlier commitments from rich countries raise doubts about its actual effectiveness.
A new reflection on COP27 by Zainab Usman, the director of the Africa Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, highlighted a broader trend that emerged: Western powers closing side deals for climate transitions with middle-income countries like Indonesia and South Africa. Deals with Vietnam and Egypt are also expected soon. Usman writes that this trend could have broader ramifications:
