By Valerie Volcovici, Dominic Evans and William James
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) – Countries agreed early Sunday at the COP27 climate summit to set up a fund to help poor countries being battered by climate disasters, but paused before backing a wider deal outlining global resolve to fight climate change.
After tense negotiations that ran through the night, the Egyptian COP27 presidency released a text of the draft agreement – and simultaneously called a plenary session to gavel it through as a final, overarching agreement.
The session approved the text’s provision to set up a “loss and damage” fund to help developing countries bear the immediate costs of climate-fuelled events such as storms and floods.
But immediately after, Switzerland called for a 30-minute suspension to allow time to study the new text. Negotiators earlier had expressed worry about changes being negotiated and written so late in the process.
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(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici, Dominic Evans and William James; Writing by Katy Daigle; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
