UPDATE: At COP27, it was finally agreed that a loss and damage fund will be set up. But we still need to make sure that rich countries contribute their fair share, and that they tax big polluters to pay for it. Our fight continues.
Rich countries and polluting corporations in the global north are the most responsible for climate change.
Yet, billions of people across the global south are being impacted by climate catastrophe, despite being the least responsible for causing it.
Movements from the global south are calling for countries with high historic carbon emissions, like the UK, to pay climate compensation for these impacts, known as "loss and damage".
We need to stand in solidarity with the global south in their demands. Tell the UK government to make polluters pay for loss and damage!
Read more
The richest 10% globally have contributed seven times more carbon emissions than the poorest 50%. Blocs of countries, including the least developed countries and small island states, have regularly called for loss and damage finance at international talks. However, at COP26 and previous talks, rich countries have repeatedly blocked attempts to set up such a fund. At the latest climate talks in Bonn this June, rich countries tried to remove loss and damage from the agenda of COP27 altogether. With COP27 taking place in North Africa, there is growing pressure from the global climate justice movement to use this historic opportunity to finally set up a loss and damage fund.
Photo: Heinrich Böll Stiftung Washington, DC (CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0)