The European Commissioner Frans Timmermans' proposal at COP27 for the rapid establishment of a fund dedicated to losses and damage due to climate change, is not in line with the Belgian and Flemish position on the subject, Flemish Environment Minister Zuhal Demir announced on Friday.
The N-VA minister was supposed to represent Belgium at COP27, according to a rotation agreed between the Belgian ministers (federal and regional), but at the end of October, she decided not to make the trip to Egypt, citing the human rights situation in that country.
Making the comments from Brussels. Minister Demir criticised Timmermans’ proposal for a new financial mechanism to respond to the loss and damage caused by climate change in the most vulnerable countries, "while several Member States, including Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Slovakia and Poland, are not in favour of it."
The issue of loss and damage, a hot topic in the COP27 negotiations. “ For us, it must be addressed with existing instruments and mechanisms,” continued Demir, who recalled that the Paris Agreement stipulates that recognition of such climate damage “shall not give rise to or serve as a basis for any liability or compensation.”
"I deplore the fact that Timmermans is engaging in all sorts of new financing mechanisms, just to restore his image," the Flemish minister further claimed, believing that “European countries, and certainly ours, are already doing a great deal in terms of climate financing.”
