COP27 debate on loss and damage to poor countries

We've been talking about it for a long time. Saleemul Huq, an adviser to the Climate Vulnerable Forum group of 55 countries, said rich countries are now being affected as well.

Wealthy countries didn't deliver a promise for US $100 billion a year by 2020 to help poor countries reduce emissions and prepare for climate change. Loss and damage payments would be added to that $100 billion.

It means you put your hand in your pocket and bring out a dollar, a euro, a yen and put it on the table for the victims of climate change, Huq said.

A proposal to add it to the agenda hasn't won broad support, making it a contentious topic for discussion on COP 27.

The issue was not added to the pre-COP 27 talks in Bonn, Germany in June. There was no agreement on UN technical assistance on accounting for loss and damage due to disputes over how that scheme should be governed.

COP 27 will be no easier as rich countries arrive with purse strings tightened by soaring energy costs, the economic fallout of the Ukraine war and the COVID-19 epidemic, which has prompted wealthy countries to spend trillions of dollars propping up their economies.

Matthew Samuda, minister in Jamaica's economic growth ministry who works on climate change, said it was my hope that developing nations will galvanize their voices to push for adequate treatment of loss and damage.

Historically, rich economies like the United States and the 27- country European Union have resisted the steps that could lead to legal liability or compensation.

At the UN COP 26 last year, the negotiators agreed to launch a two-year dialogue on loss and damage, but stopped short of setting up an actual fund.

Putting the topic on the COP 27 agenda could lead to discussions on where the money would come from, how it would be distributed or even how to define climate-induced losses. Some research suggests that such losses could reach US $580 billion per year by the year 2030.

Everything has been left quite unsure on how to rebuild the trust between developed and developing countries, said Alex Scott, climate diplomacy expert at think tank E 3 G.

Some resource-challenged countries hope for a breakthrough.

According to Madeleine Diouf Sarr, chair of the Least Developed Countries bloc in the UN climate negotiations, "We are hopeful that the international community will step up."

Germany's foreign minister said that country would prioritise the issue in its own international climate policy during a visit to the Pacific Archipelago Palau last month.

Annalena Baerbock said that this is an issue we haven't talked about for a long time.