Shines overshadowed by corporate interest at COP27

There is no big achievement from the COP27, except establishing a fund to finance the countries for loss and damage of extreme climatic events, which also may be grabbed by the business interest of some multinational financial institutions, experts have said.

Experts expressed the concern at a round table, “Climate diplomacy at COP27: weather shines are overshadowed by corporate interest!”, in Dhaka on Thursday, jointly organised by 23 national and international NGOs working in Bangladesh.

“Loss and damage issue was included in the agenda list of COP27 in line with the Paris agreement and finally the fund was established at the end of the conference. But it has not been decided yet who will pay. Will the payment be made before the disaster or after the disaster? Will the vulnerable countries be eligible to get the funding? Now the debate is who is vulnerable?” said Md Shamsuddoha, chief executive of Centre for Participatory Research and Development (CPRD).

He said, “Even the money will not only come from the public financing from the different countries, but also from multinational and regional financial institutions (World Bank, IMF, ADB etc.).”

“Developed world knows how businesses can be boosted by using the crisis in the name of green. Financial institutions also tried and are trying to make good use of the scope,” Shamsuddoha said. Sohanur Rahman, the coordinator of YouthNet, claimed that the corporates are trying to hijack the conference from the common people.