COP27 talks weigh who should pay for climate damage to poor countries

SHARM EL SHEIKH, Egypt: Negotiators at the UN climate summit are working out the details of a proposal for wealthy countries to pay developing ones for some of the damage from extreme weather that scientists say is associated with global warming.

The plan suggests the money could flow through a variety of channels, including a new facility to help countries deal with floods, storms, drought and other natural disasters believed to be made worse by climate change, according to a draft text released by negotiators. If the plan survives until the final agreement this week, it could be the most significant development of this year’s COP27 meeting in Egypt.

Rich countries are opposed to the creation of a new fund, the main demand of developing ones. That issue is unlikely to be resolved at this meeting, negotiators say. Countries aim to agree on the details of the funding plan over the next two years, according to the draft.

The money would be earmarked for what negotiators call loss and damage, when negative effects linked to climate change are sudden or potentially irreparable. Developing countries want the funds to come on top of money they receive from wealthy nations to cut greenhouse-gas emissions and adapt to the repercussions of climate change.

Wealthy countries have balked at being on the hook for loss and damage such as the recent floods in Pakistan, heat waves in Asia this year or the dangers posed by rising seas to islands.

They argue that it is hard to determine the role that climate change has played in specific weather events. The sums involved are potentially enormous, and rich nations worry that agreeing to these types of payments would leave them or their companies vulnerable to lawsuits. The concerns linger despite the fact that the 2015 Paris agreement, and the draft text circulated this week, rule out liability being linked to the loss and damage issue. The wealthy countries, which produced the bulk of the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change, have come under increasing pressure amid a spate of disasters. And some climate scientists are now weighing in on how much more likely a specific event occurred because of climate change, as part of the emerging field of weather attribution research.

“The impacts are happening at such a pace and intensity that one can’t look away anymore,” Jennifer Morgan, Germany’s climate envoy, said. “It’s serious enough that we have to figure out what to do about it.”

Ms Morgan and Chile’s environment minister were in charge of facilitating the conversation on loss and damage at the COP27 gathering. Ideas for financing being discussed at COP27 include a tax on fossil-fuel companies.

The Alliance of Small Island States, representing 39 nations in danger of being submerged by rising sea levels, first highlighted the need to cover the “financial burden of loss and damage” back in 1991.

“I’m hoping that this time, after 30 years, that the call of developing countries is answered,” said Conrod Hunte, deputy chair of the alliance.

Many developing countries have pointed to the scale of this year’s monsoon rains and floods in Pakistan, which have left the country with losses and rebuilding costs assessed by the government and World Bank at $30 billion, as an example of what vulnerable countries are increasingly likely to contend with. Less than half of Pakistan’s $816 million international emergency appeal has been funded.