Vulnerable countries and campaigners are calling for urgent progress on funding for loss and damage caused by climate change, as Cop27 talks enter the final few days.
The issue of loss and damage to people’s homes and farms, schools and transport links caused by rising seas and increasingly extreme weather is a key focus at the latest round of UN talks taking place in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.
Developing countries are at the forefront of unavoidable impacts that they cannot protect themselves from, but have done least to cause the crisis.
They are backed by campaigners in their calls for a global fund under the UN climate process, which would see rich, polluting nations compensating them for the damage they are suffering.
Small island developing states will no longer stand for delay on loss and damage finance
Molwyn Joseph, Aosis chairman
But as the Cop27 talks enter their final days, the Alliance of Small Island States (Aosis) accused developed countries of “furiously tying to stall progress” on establishing a fund at Cop27.
Recent devastating floods in Pakistan and Nigeria and a multi-year drought in the Horn of Africa have increased the pressure on countries at Cop27 to deliver on the issue.
The G77 group of 134 developing nations and China have put forward a proposal for establishing a fund at Cop27, but the latest draft text for negotiation includes setting up a finance facility over the next two years as only one of the options for addressing the issue.
Molwyn Joseph, health, wellness and environment minister of Antigua and Barbuda and chairman of Aosis, said of developed countries: “Not only are they causing the worst impacts of the climate crisis, they are playing games with us in this multilateral process.”
He said there had only been informal consultations, no official launch of negotiations, and warned “we have come too far to fail on loss and damage finance”.
“We greatly appreciate the signs of willingness to engage from countries such as the United Kingdom and New Zealand and call on other developed countries to uphold the integrity of this process which is mandated to support the most vulnerable,” he said.
He said that the group’s countries had been pushed “to their very limits” and warned that “small island developing states will no longer stand for delay on loss and damage finance”.
Oxfam’s climate change policy lead, Nafkote Dabi, said the inclusion of loss and damage in the Cop27 agenda “remains a political game for developed countries, who may likely exit this summit with no agreement on the way forward”.
“It is crucial that developing countries can access a formal fund to pay for the damages and losses they are already suffering today,” she said.
Nushrat Chowdhury, Christian Aid’s climate justice advisor, who is from Bangladesh, said homes, farms and villages in her country have already been washed away by sea level rise.
And she warned: “The rich, polluting, countries that have crashed the climate should help pay for those who are suffering from the consequences.”
She said the UK has been silent on the issue of loss and damage, despite claiming to be a climate champion, and called on Britain to back demands for a special loss and damage fund to be created.
The UK should also commit funds to loss and damage, as other countries have done, she said, as “if the UK did this it would be a big statement of support which would build momentum for other countries to follow suit.”
Rebecca Newsom, head of politics at Greenpeace UK, said: “The UK Government should be powering full steam ahead towards securing high-level political agreement on the loss and damage fund before the end of the year.”
She said the Government should not be distracted by questions about the fund’s design and mechanisms, as there were processes and forums to answer those questions over the next two years.
“It would reflect very badly on the UK to block this agreement while devastating climate change threatens the lives and livelihoods of people from developing countries,” she warned.