The money fight that could 'break' the climate summit
Source: Politico
The money fight that could break the climate summit
An agreement to create the loss and damage fund was the big achievement of last years climate conference in Egypt. But countries including the U.S. are at odds over how to set it up and who should run it.
By ZIA WEISE, SARA SCHONHARDT and KARL MATHIESEN
10/30/2023 05:00 AM EDT
A historic agreement to support victims of climate disasters is at risk of coming apart a development that could derail the upcoming United Nations climate summit in Dubai.
Talks on setting up a fund to help poorer countries cope with the consequences of global warming have become mired in acrimony to the point where one lead negotiator is threatening to reopen the most explosive issue: whether big polluters such as the U.S. and the European Union should be held liable for their many decades of greenhouse gas pollution. That notion could cause the U.S. to walk away from talks on the fund altogether.
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Last years summit, known as COP27, yielded an agreement to set up a fund to pay for loss and damage, as the social and economic costs of climate change are known in U.N. jargon. That fragile consensus came after years of resistance led by the U.S., which has pumped more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than any other country and has been wary of opening any legal avenue to compensation claims.
Yet as negotiations have started to drill down on the form the fund should take, and who should run it, what little progress has been achieved has been put on hold.
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Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/30/climate-disaster-fund-dubai-un-summit-00124038