Loss and damage fund
‘Until we end the fossil fuel era, further heating of the planet is inevitable, and the costs of loss and damage will only increase.’
The year ended with positive news when the COP27 climate summit agreed a historic loss and damage deal.
After years of campaigning, Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) hailed it as ‘a moment of extraordinary significance’, but added the UK government must take urgent action on oil and gas to limit further impacts. Olivia Hanks, climate justice lead for BYM, said it was ‘a momentous achievement’, but the lack of progress on phasing out fossil fuels was ‘deeply alarming’. ‘The UK needs to put an end to all further oil and gas extraction. Until we end the fossil fuel era, further heating of the planet is inevitable, and the costs of loss and damage will only increase.’
In a joint briefing, BYM and Oxfam asked parliamentarians to urge the government to adopt a grants-based fund that is new and additional to existing commitments. They also called for licences for North Sea oil and gas exploration to be revoked; to scrap plans for a coal mine in Cumbria; and roll out a just transition to renewables. Quakers up and down the country took part in witness to uphold the summit. As Friends in London, Lancaster, Cardiff, Manchester, Totnes and Beccles gathered to support a Loss and Damage Day, Alison Meaton, from Penzance Meeting, said their witness at Truro Cathedral was ‘only the beginning’.
While many campaigners branded COP27 a ‘missed opportunity’ in failing to do anything to keep global heating to within 1.5C, Greenpeace noted that a ‘critical number of countries did call for fossil fuels to be addressed’ and ‘this will only increase pressure at COP28 next year to finally end the era of fossil fuels’.
