On the first day of COP27, the annual United Governments climate change conference, officials from over 200 nations gathered in the wealthy resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, to discuss compensating impoverished countries for damages caused by global warming.
The issue was added to the schedule despite the global community’s preoccupation with the Ukraine war and rising costs.
Wealthy nations have historically avoided talking about “loss and damage,” the technique by which they send financial help to other countries so that they can deal with climate change’s repercussions.
The United States and the European Union opposed a suggestion to form a loss and damage finance group at last year’s summit in Glasgow.
In the aftermath of recent natural catastrophes like the flooding in Pakistan, which cost an estimated $30 billion in economic losses and forced millions of people homeless, there have been rising calls to put such plans into reality.
During the opening session, the president of COP27, Sameh Shoukry, noted that the inclusion of this item on the agenda “reflects a sense of solidarity with the victims of climate disasters” and that the objective of the discussions is to obtain a final agreement “no later than 2024.”
Nonetheless, what initiatives will be done in the future remains to be seen. There are enormous hurdles to supporting such an operation, particularly given the shaky financial condition of western nations as they fight inflation.