The COP27 UN climate summit in Egypt closed with a historic deal, in which negotiators from nearly 200 countries agreed to set up a “loss and damage” fund meant to help vulnerable countries cope with climate disasters and agreed the globe needs to cut greenhouse gas emissions nearly in half by 2030.

The pledge would end almost 30 years of waiting by nations facing huge climate impacts, despite their much smaller contributions to global warming. 

However, many have considered the conference a missed opportunity, as it failed to set a strategy for the phasing out of fossil fuels, allowing emissions-causing hydrocarbons to remain embedded in the global economy.

“We joined with many parties to propose a number of measures that would have contributed to this emissions-peaking before 2025, as the science tells us is necessary. Not in this text,” said Alok Sharma, president of the previous COP summit in Glasgow.

This year's talks in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, came...