Climate crisis: COP27 included compensation from rich countries to poor countries for the first time on its agenda

Putting this issue on the agenda will force high-income nations, historically responsible for the lion’s share of emissions, to debate funds to help countries most vulnerable to climate change, something they rejected for more than a decade.

Delegates at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt agreed, after evening talks, to put on the official agenda for the first time the sensitive question of whether rich nations should compensate poor countries most vulnerable to climate change.

For more than a decade, rich nations have shunned official discussions about what are known as loss and damage, or the funds they provide to help poor countries cope with the consequences of global warming. Rich, more industrialized nations are historically responsible for most of the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.

COP27 President Sameh Shoukry told the plenary session opening this year’s two-week United Nations conference, attended by more than 190 countries, that the decision created “an institutionally stable space” to discuss “the pressing issue of financing arrangements.”

At last year’s COP26 in Glasgow, high-income countries blocked a proposal to create a loss and damage finance body, and instead supported a three-year dialogue for funding discussions.

The discussions on loss and damage now on the COP27 agenda will not guarantee compensation or necessarily acknowledge liability, but are intended to lead to a conclusive decision “no later than 2024,” Shoukry said.

The issue could generate even more tension than at previous conferences this year, as the war in Ukraine, soaring energy prices and the risk of economic recession have both increased the reluctance of governments to pledge funds and the need for poor countries to receive them.

Negotiations Saturday night before the adoption of the agenda “were extremely difficult,” said Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy at the nonprofit Climate Action Network International.

“Rich countries, first of all, never wanted loss and damage to be on the agenda,” he said.

Some criticized the cavalier language about accountability, but while weaker than expected, getting the issue formally put on the agenda will force wealthier nations to commit to the issue.

“They rightly expect more solidarity from rich countries, and Germany is ready for it, both in climate finance and in dealing with damage and loss,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said in a statement.

Germany wants to launch at the conference a “protective shield against climate risks”, an initiative on which it has been working with vulnerable states such as Bangladesh and Ghana.

The Bangladesh-based International Centre for Climate Change and Development said it was “good news” that loss and damage was officially on the agenda.

“Now the real work to make funding a reality begins,” said Salmeel Huq, director of the center.

Source: Infobae