![]() ![]() Negotiators know that the idea of payments for loss and damage has the potential to lead to further discussions about financial compensation for historical injustices, such as slavery in the United States or colonial exploitation by European powers.Īt COP26, held in 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland, negotiators made progress on some key issues, such as stronger emissions targets and pledges to double adaptation finance for developing countries. It evokes the question: Why should countries that have done little to cause global warming be responsible for the damage resulting from the emissions of wealthy countries? ![]() The conversation on loss and damage is inherently about equity. ![]() After climate disasters, countries often need financial help to cover relief efforts, infrastructure repairs and recoveries.Įgypt is emphasizing the need for wealthy countries to make more progress on providing financial support for both adaptation and loss and damage. Loss and damage is different from adaptation. To deal with climate change, these countries – many of them among the world’s poorest – will have to invest in adaptation measures, such as seawalls, climate-smart agriculture and infrastructure that’s more resilient to high heat and extreme storms. climate conference, it’s not surprising that loss and damage will take center stage.Ĭountries in Africa have some of the lowest national greenhouse gas emissions, and yet the continent is home to many of the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries. Many developing countries are looking to this year’s conference, COP27, as a crucial moment for making progress on establishing that formal mechanism. The question of payments for loss and damage has been a long-standing point of negotiation at United Nations climate conferences, held nearly every year since 1995, but there has been little progress toward including a financial mechanism for these payments in international climate agreements. A warming climate intensifies rainfall, and studies suggest climate change may have increased Pakistan’s rainfall intensity by as much as 50%. But greenhouse gases don’t stay within national borders – emissions anywhere affect the global climate. Pakistan contributes only about 1% of the global greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change. ![]() This was followed by a surge in malaria cases as mosquitoes bred in the stagnant water. More than 1,700 people died, millions lost their homes and livelihoods, and more than 4 million acres of crops and orchards, as well as livestock, drowned or were damaged. The flooding turned Pakistan’s farm fields into miles-wide lakes that stranded communities for weeks. READ MORE: The COP27 climate conference kicks off in Egypt next month. They want wealthier nations – historically the biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions – to pay for the harm.Ī powerful example is Pakistan, where extreme rainfall on the heels of a glacier-melting heat wave flooded nearly one-third of the country in the summer of 2022. Many of the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries have done little to cause climate change, yet they are experiencing extreme heat waves, floods and other climate-related disasters. It refers to the costs, both economic and physical, that developing countries are facing from climate change impacts that they are unable to adapt to. You may be hearing the phrase “loss and damage” in the coming weeks as government leaders meet in Egypt for the 2022 U.N. ![]()
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