As climate talks in Bonn headed into their final day, developing countries have accused richer nations of betraying the developing world and failing to compensate for the damage done.
During the talks, poorer nations hoped that the meeting, which was mainly technical, would formally put loss and damage on the agenda for political leaders due to meet at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh in November.
But they are yet to see that happen. And If no progress is made, many participants say this would be a significant blow to unity ahead of COP27.
“It would be tragic,” said ambassador Conrod Hunte, lead negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS).
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Although the nations believed that new money to pay for the impacts of climate change that they can’t adapt to would be set up, they nowsay the issue has been sidelined by the US and Europe in the discussions in Bonn.
For many participants, a concept known as loss and damage has become the key issue in global climate negotiations.
For instance, Adriana Vasquez Rodriquez from the Association La Ruta del Clima, a Costa Rican environmental group said, “We are already living with loss and damages for the last 25 years,”.
She said, “We have families who have lost their houses, their crops, their lives, and no one is paying for that, we are running out of resources, and at the same time, we are depending on the debt.”
The nations argue that the climate change they are experiencing has been caused by historic carbon emissions that originated in richer countries, adding that Europe and the US have a responsibility now to pay for these losses and damages.
But the US and Europe are said not to agree as they fear that if they pay for historic emissions it could put their countries on the hook for billions of dollars for decades or even centuries to come.
According to reports, the issue came to a head at the 2021 UN climate conference in Glasgow, known as COP26, where what’s been termed a “delicate compromise” was reached.
Story was adapted from the BBC.
