At COP27, Developing Countries Have a Message for Polluters: Pay
Poor countries facing climate hazards want the United States and other industrialized countries to compensate them for the damage caused by greenhouse gases.
In Pakistan, floods this summer have killed 1,700 people and left a third of the country under water. In Fiji, entire villages are retreating inland to escape rising seas. In Kenya, persistent drought has killed livestock and devastated livelihoods.
They are among dozens of developing countries facing irreversible damage from climate change, but did little to provoke the crisis. And they are demanding compensation from the parties they see as responsible: the wealthiest nations who have burned oil, gas and coal for decades and created pollution that is dangerously warming the planet.
Across cultures and centuries, the idea that if you damage your neighbor's property, you owe restitution is a common notion, found even in the Bible.
But as law and practice, it has been extraordinarily difficult to apply this principle to climate change. Wealthy nations like the United States and the European Union have opposed the idea of explicitly compensating poorer countries for climate disasters already underway, fearing it would expose them to unlimited liability. p>
As United Nations climate talks open on Sunday in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, the debate over loss and damage will take center stage. Egypt, the host country, and Pakistan, which leads a group of 77 developing countries, managed to put the issue on the official agenda for the first time.
Simon Stiell, the UN's climate chief, said the decision to include it on the agenda "bodes well" for a compromise by the end of the summit.
The question is inevitable this year, with leaders from nearly 200 nations meeting on the African continent, where millions face starvation due to drought intensified by climate change. climatic. And scientific developments have allowed researchers to quantify the role global warming plays in disasters, bolstering the argument that rich countries, which have emitted half of all heat-trapping gases since 1850, bear a heavy responsibility. .
"What we seek is not charity, not alms, not help - but justice" , Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Pakistan's foreign minister, said in September, discussing the country's devastating floods which scientists say have been made worse by global warming. “Today, thirty-three million Pakistanis are paying with their lives and livelihoods for the industrialization of larger countries. per year by 2025 to help poorer countries with climate adaptation measures such as building flood defences. But a United Nations report estimates that this is less than a fifth of what developing countries need. This has fueled calls for separate loss and damage funding to deal with the consequences of climate disasters that nations cannot protect against.
Dealing with a growing pressure...
Poor countries facing climate hazards want the United States and other industrialized countries to compensate them for the damage caused by greenhouse gases.
In Pakistan, floods this summer have killed 1,700 people and left a third of the country under water. In Fiji, entire villages are retreating inland to escape rising seas. In Kenya, persistent drought has killed livestock and devastated livelihoods.
They are among dozens of developing countries facing irreversible damage from climate change, but did little to provoke the crisis. And they are demanding compensation from the parties they see as responsible: the wealthiest nations who have burned oil, gas and coal for decades and created pollution that is dangerously warming the planet.
Across cultures and centuries, the idea that if you damage your neighbor's property, you owe restitution is a common notion, found even in the Bible.
But as law and practice, it has been extraordinarily difficult to apply this principle to climate change. Wealthy nations like the United States and the European Union have opposed the idea of explicitly compensating poorer countries for climate disasters already underway, fearing it would expose them to unlimited liability. p>
As United Nations climate talks open on Sunday in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, the debate over loss and damage will take center stage. Egypt, the host country, and Pakistan, which leads a group of 77 developing countries, managed to put the issue on the official agenda for the first time.
Simon Stiell, the UN's climate chief, said the decision to include it on the agenda "bodes well" for a compromise by the end of the summit.
The question is inevitable this year, with leaders from nearly 200 nations meeting on the African continent, where millions face starvation due to drought intensified by climate change. climatic. And scientific developments have allowed researchers to quantify the role global warming plays in disasters, bolstering the argument that rich countries, which have emitted half of all heat-trapping gases since 1850, bear a heavy responsibility. .
"What we seek is not charity, not alms, not help - but justice" , Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Pakistan's foreign minister, said in September, discussing the country's devastating floods which scientists say have been made worse by global warming. “Today, thirty-three million Pakistanis are paying with their lives and livelihoods for the industrialization of larger countries. per year by 2025 to help poorer countries with climate adaptation measures such as building flood defences. But a United Nations report estimates that this is less than a fifth of what developing countries need. This has fueled calls for separate loss and damage funding to deal with the consequences of climate disasters that nations cannot protect against.
Dealing with a growing pressure...
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