In a press release issued at the end of the talks, Friends of the Earth International celebrated the establishment of a fund to compensate developing countries for the irreversible “loss and damage” caused by climate change, despite consistent efforts by the US and other developed countries to derail it. “This fund was one of the key demands of developing countries, and it is a welcome first step that had seemed elusive. However, there is still plenty of scope for developed countries to wriggle out of their responsibilities, and other COP27 outcomes were extremely weak,” they said. The talks saw little progress on delivering the clean and just transition to renewable energy we need, or on reducing emissions to mitigate climate change. The presence of fossil fuel lobbyists was stronger than ever, and false solutions like carbon offsetting continue to take centre stage.
Real World Radio interviewed Meena Raman, President of SAM/Friends of the Earth Malaysia and Head of Programs at the Third World Network, and Ayumi Fukakusa, Climate Change and Energy campaigner at Friends of the Earth Japan, to learn more about the outcomes of COP27, from the perspective of the Asia Pacific region.
“Unfortunately, the rich countries pretended to be very ambitious… but many of the solutions presented are false solutions,” says Meena Raman, SAM.
“Peoples’ movements demanding a fossil fuel phase-out and a just transition became more visible, and put a lot of pressure on the Global North and fossil fuel companies to make them accountable,” says Ayumi Fukakusa, FoE Japan.