COP27 talks not ready to agree on funding: EU

Talks about how to compensate vulnerable countries for the damage caused by climate change are not ready to agree on a funding mechanism, a European Union negotiator said on Friday, but did not exclude progress on the issue at COP27.

The topic, known as "loss and damage", has for the first time made it to the formal agenda at the conference in Egypt in what was seen as a breakthrough for developing nations.

The European Union has said at the COP27 summit it does not rule out the possibility of a fund, a shift after rich countries have long resisted the idea because of fears of spiralling liability for emissions historically linked the developed world.

EU negotiator Jacob Werksman said negotiations were not ready to agree on a single funding solution, but he hoped the COP27 summit would achieve more than just scheduling further talks on climate compensation.

"We don't think that this process is ready to agree in principle that a new fund or facility is the right or the only way forward," he told a news conference. "But we are not excluding that and couldn't exclude that as a significant part of the conversation."

Climate-vulnerable countries say wealthy industrialised nations should help to pay for irreversible damage from disasters  after decades of emissions have caused global temperatures to rise.