After decades of resistance, rich countries offer direct climate aid

Several European leaders at COP27 announced funds to help poor countries recover from the loss and damage caused by climate change. The United States remained silent.
SHARM EL SHEIKH, Egypt — For 30 years, developing countries have called on industrialized nations to compensate for the costs of storms and devastating droughts caused by climate change. For just as long, the wealthy countries that generated the pollution that is dangerously warming the planet have resisted these calls.
At the United Nations climate summit the last year, only host country Scotland incurred $2.2 million for so-called 'loss and damage'. But this week the dam may have started to burst.
Developing country negotiators managed to put the issue on the agenda on Sunday official of this year's climate summit, known as COP27, or the 27th meeting of the Conference of the Parties.
"The addition of loss and damage to the Agenda is a significant achievement, and we have been fighting it for many years,” Mia Mottley, Barbados' prime minister, said on Tuesday. "We have a moral and just cause."
At the end of the third day of the conference, several European countries had pledged money for a new fund to loss and damage.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon appeared at a New York Times event on the sidelines of COP27 after pledging an additional $5.7 million.
"Southern countries still feel they must come and implore rich countries to recognize, let alone solve, the problem of loss and damage, for example “said Ms Sturgeon. "There is a real need to make tangible progress."
The direct funding commitment for loss and damage represents a major departure from precedent. For decades rich countries, which have emitted half of all heat-trapping gases since 1850, have shunned calls to help poor countries recover from climate disasters, fearing it could expose them to unlimited liability. And, from a legal and practical point of view, it has been extremely difficult to define "loss and damage" and to determine what it might cost and who should pay how much.
Yet after increasingly destructive fires, floods and droughts, which affected every corner of the globe but disproportionately affected the developing world, Western leaders changed their tune.
ImageMia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados, addressing the United Nations Summit on the climate. "We have a moral and just cause," she said. "media" role="group">ImageUrsula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, joined the chorus of European nations endorsing the idea of new funds for poor nations affected by climate change.Credit... Sean Gallup/Getty Images
On Tuesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen endorsed the idea of new funds for poor nations...

World Nov 9, 2022 0 36 Add to Reading List

After decades of resistance, rich countries offer direct climate aid

Several European leaders at COP27 announced funds to help poor countries recover from the loss and damage caused by climate change. The United States remained silent.

SHARM EL SHEIKH, Egypt — For 30 years, developing countries have called on industrialized nations to compensate for the costs of storms and devastating droughts caused by climate change. For just as long, the wealthy countries that generated the pollution that is dangerously warming the planet have resisted these calls.

At the United Nations climate summit the last year, only host country Scotland incurred $2.2 million for so-called 'loss and damage'. But this week the dam may have started to burst.

Developing country negotiators managed to put the issue on the agenda on Sunday official of this year's climate summit, known as COP27, or the 27th meeting of the Conference of the Parties.

"The addition of loss and damage to the Agenda is a significant achievement, and we have been fighting it for many years,” Mia Mottley, Barbados' prime minister, said on Tuesday. "We have a moral and just cause."

At the end of the third day of the conference, several European countries had pledged money for a new fund to loss and damage.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon appeared at a New York Times event on the sidelines of COP27 after pledging an additional $5.7 million.

"Southern countries still feel they must come and implore rich countries to recognize, let alone solve, the problem of loss and damage, for example “said Ms Sturgeon. "There is a real need to make tangible progress."

The direct funding commitment for loss and damage represents a major departure from precedent. For decades rich countries, which have emitted half of all heat-trapping gases since 1850, have shunned calls to help poor countries recover from climate disasters, fearing it could expose them to unlimited liability. And, from a legal and practical point of view, it has been extremely difficult to define "loss and damage" and to determine what it might cost and who should pay how much.

Yet after increasingly destructive fires, floods and droughts, which affected every corner of the globe but disproportionately affected the developing world, Western leaders changed their tune.

ImageMia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados, addressing the United Nations Summit on the climate. "We have a moral and just cause," she said. "media" role="group">ImageUrsula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, joined the chorus of European nations endorsing the idea of new funds for poor nations affected by climate change.Credit... Sean Gallup/Getty Images

On Tuesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen endorsed the idea of new funds for poor nations...