Over 100 US environmental groups urged top US climate envoy John Kerry today to support the establishment of a compensation fund. It should recompense countries that have suffered the most from climate change. They suffered both economic and physical losses as a result of the harmful impact on climate.
This is a key demand of affected countries at the upcoming COP27 climate summit in Egypt.
Environmentalists demand compensation fund
The letter, signed among others by the Sierra Club and Greenpeace USA, claims that the world’s second-largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions has a responsibility. They said the US is responsible for nearly a quarter of global total combined greenhouse gas emissions since the Industrial Revolution and must address loss and damage.
Poor countries put pressure on the United States and the European Union, the world’s third-largest emitters of greenhouse gases. They ask the economic giants to soften their long-standing opposition to compensation for “loss and damage”. Those losses and damages are caused by floods, rising seas, and other climate change-related effects.
The environmental groups wrote in their letter that United States’ negotiating posture on loss and damage has been obstinate. Its stubborn position creates a major impediment to meeting the urgent needs of climate-vulnerable countries, the environmentalists said. Also, they added, it causes great harm to the U.S. reputation itself on the global stage.
The administration always finds excuses not to compensate
According to a senior Biden administration official, the US does not necessarily oppose the establishment of a new “loss and damage” funding facility. But he believes that there are existing sources of funding that can potentially cover climate losses. He is prone to search where the gaps in existing institutions instead of making new funds.
The same official said that the US turned down a proposal made by climate-vulnerable nations at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow last year for a reason, The reason was that their request did not define whether some countries would be legally responsible for climate harm.
To wait and see if there will be a compensation fund
A draft of the EU’s negotiating position for COP27 leaked last week. It indicates that the 27-nation bloc would support discussions on the topic at the COP27 meeting in Egypt. Yet, it did not specify whether it supports a funding model.
Egypt, the host nation for the United Nations climate talks, has tasked the environment ministers of Chile and Germany with devising a strategy for including the contentious loss and damage issue on the formal summit agenda.