Analysis

Rich Nations Offer Some 'Loss and Damage' Aid, Shrug Off 'Liability' at COP27, Say Experts

So far only six developed nations have offered some aid within the framework of the "loss and damage" agenda. Earlier, industrialized nations had vowed to provide up to $100Bln by 2020 to vulnerable countries suffering from climate change-related disasters, but fell short of delivering on their promise.
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"There should be recognition that the world's industrialized countries have a greater carbon and greenhouse emission footprint compared with their developing country counterparts, and that is backed by evidence that has been gathered [for as long as] climate change and emissions that are caused by humans has been recorded," Ongama Mtimka, a lecturer specializing in South African politics and international political economy at Nelson Mandela University, told Sputnik.

"As such, measures like grant funding as well as reparations must have a greater bias on less industrialized countries, given the fact that those countries still need to ensure that they migrate from primary good-producing countries, to being countries that add value as well as build sustainable tertiary sectors," Mtimka continued.

The 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) began on 6 November in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. On the second day of the meeting, vulnerable developing states that suffer from climate change-related environmental problems while producing the least amount of carbon dioxide called upon the most-polluting nations to pay "loss and damage" and "adaptation" funds.
According to the UN website, specific additional pledges have been made by several industrialized countries. The UK has vowed to triple its adaptation finance for developing states by 2025. In addition to that, Scotland, which had previously pledged £2Mln ($2.3Mln), announced an extra £5Mln ($5.7Mln) in loss and damage funds.
Austria pledged $50Mln for loss and damage, Germany announced $170Mln and Belgium €2.5Mln ($2.5Mln) for the same issue. Earlier, in September, Denmark pledged to allocate 100Mln Krone ($13.5Mln) with a focus on the Sahel region in north-western Africa. For his part, Irish PM Micheal Martin committed €10Mln ($10Mln) to the "Global Shield" initiative for 2023.
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Still, it is estimated that the economic cost of loss and damage in developing countries will be between $1 trillion and $1.8 trillion by 2050, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF). Given this, the aforementioned commitments appear to be minuscule. It raises the question whether developed states will fork out even more to compensate for loss and damage to poor developing states.
Between 2009 and 2020, industrialized countries delivered just a fraction of their $100Bln climate-finance target. Thus, for instance, the US gave $7.6Bln instead of $40Bln; Canada was $3.3Bln short, providing only 37 percent of its fair share. Australia gave 38 percent of its share, falling short by $1.7Bln. The UK shortchanged developing nations by $1.4Bln giving 76 percent of what it had agreed to pay. Germany, France and Japan provided much of their aid in loans rather than grants, according to Carbon Brief, a UK-based investigative journalism website.
In contrast, the US, the EU, the UK and some other developed nations have pledged a whopping €93.73Bln ($93.62Bln) in military, financial, and humanitarian aid to Ukraine between January and October 2022.
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The affected developing nations should "determine the initial amount to be paid, taking into account the costs necessary to restore good environmental conditions, to compensate local residents who had their health spoiled by the mining companies, and the necessary funds for the development of the affected economies," Kirill Kazakov, a member of the Russian Political Science Association Council of Youth Political Scientists, said.

"The invoices issued will then be adjusted as part of the negotiation process between the affected states and the countries that will have to pay these compensations," the expert emphasized.
However, developed countries are reluctant to pay any "compensation" to the affected states or be labeled as "liable" to pay, he added.

"Some western countries may pay some amounts to promote the development of countries that consider themselves affected, for the sake of obtaining additional preferences for their own companies to the detriment of the interests of geopolitical opponents, as well as to activate their anti-Russian narrative on international platforms," the scholar suggested. "Consequently, the affected countries will receive their funds, and western countries will avoid creating a precedent of paying 'reparations' and 'compensations' for their economic activities."

Earlier, US climate czar and former Secretary of State under Barack Obama, John Kerry, warned poor states against trying to hold the US "liable": according to him that would create problems "for everybody, not just for us".
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