This is one of the essential challenges of COP27, the annual meeting of the international community to fight against global warming. Will developing countries achieve progress on the thorny issue of “loss and damage”? Last year, in Glasgow, the developed countries succeeded in blocking any significant progress on this sensitive file.
At the start of the COP in Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt), franceinfo explains to you what lies behind this term.
What does this expression mean?
This topic, also called “loss and damage”, is as old as climate negotiations, with a first mention as early as the Rio de Janeiro summit in 1991. It has taken on increasing importance as the impacts of global warming have been felt. This term designates “the consequences that we cannot avoid, even if we do everything to reduce global warming and adapt to it”explains to franceinfo Fanny Petitbon, advocacy manager of the Care France association.
Very concretely, it is the damage already caused by extreme events, such as the recent terrible floods in Pakistan or the heat wave which hit Europe this summer, and by more progressive phenomena such as the rise in sea level which threatens certain Disappearing island states. This damage can be material, human, cultural and psychological.
“These are irreplaceable thingscontinues with franceinfo Azeez Abubakar, an activist of the Loss and Damage Youth Coalition. You can’t replace someone who died because of climate change, you can’t replace lost health or a culture that’s gone.” The young Nigerian specifies that in the poorest countries, even the material infrastructures cannot be replaced, for lack of means.
In a report published on October 24, 23 NGOs, including Care France, estimate that since 1991, 97% of people affected by “extreme climatic events have been in developing countries”or 189 million people per year. A recent study by the V20* group, which brings together 58 “vulnerable” countries, assesses the cost of the climate crisis on their economies for 20 years at 525 billion dollars (around 525 billion euros).
Why is this a sensitive subject?
Because behind this expression hides a central question: who is responsible for global warming, and who should pay? thes least developed countries are the most affected by these “loss and damage” while they are the least prepared to face it and the least responsible for global warming. “This damage is caused by the increase in greenhouse gas emissions, for which the countries of the North are mainly responsible”, reminds franceinfo Sidra Adil, researcher at the Collective for Social Science Research in Karachi (Pakistan), who does not, however, want to exonerate her government from the lack of measures to deal with the risk of flooding. Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, North America, Europe and Australia have been responsible for 63% of CO2 emissions, the main greenhouse gas, compared to 3% for the African continent or 0.28 % for Pakistan, according to platform data Our World in Data*.
It is on the basis of this observation that the most exposed countries, in particular the small island states, are asking for the establishment of a compensation mechanism. This should, in their view, be separate from the funds that already exist for adaptation or the reduction of emissions. “The UN system today has money to put in solar panels, to upgrade your house (of course, not enough), but it doesn’t have money for people who lose their homes. To someone who drowns, we say, ‘We can’t help you now, but if you survive, we’ll help you prepare for the next disaster’explains to the specialized site Carbon Brief* Harjeet Singh, expert at the Climate Action Network.
This request is currently coming up against the reluctance of the countries of the North. “The question of funding has always been a big taboo. The big polluting countries do not want to be sent to court if they admit some responsibility”contextualizes Inès Bakhtaoui, associate researcher at the Stockholm Environment Institute. In 2015, the term “loss and damage” finds a place in the Paris agreement, in article 8. But the text that accompanies the agreement specifies immediately, in paragraph 51, that this famous article 8 “does not imply nor produce any liability or compensation”.
Beyond this desire not to be held responsible for the problem, the developed countries had until now another argument. “They didn’t want to hear about it, because they said we could still avoid it, we could limit the warming and adapt to it.continues Inès Bakhtaoui. We know today that we are lagging behind on these objectives, so the question of damage management appears more and more. Of all the COPs since 2015, Fanny Petitbon, from CareFrance, n / A “never seen so much media and political interest on this subject”.
What are the advanced solutions?
From COP to COP, several solutions have been put forward to finance these “losses and damages”. “The countries of the North say that these are colossal sums, that they will not be able to ‘sell’ it to their fellow citizens. It is as if they were pretending to forget all the proposals put on the table”, reframes Fanny Petitbon. In September, the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, for example, called for taxing “the exceptional profits of companies producing fossil fuels” – coal, oil and gas, the combustion of which is the main cause of global warming – to redirect them in particular “to countries suffering loss and damage caused by the climate crisis”. Fanny Petitbon also cites the possibility of taxing emissions from the air and maritime sectors, of setting up a levy on financial transactions or even of establishing a moratorium on the debt of countries affected by a climate catastrophe.
What is France’s position?
“France has an open position on this subject, but we have to agree on what is the most effective”, explained the Elysée before Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Sharm el-Sheikh. Clearly, Paris wants to move forward on this issue, without however going so far as to approve a new financial mechanism, arguing that the money available in other funds is not fully used. France prefers to focus on early warning systems or “insurance solutions”, a file studied with Germany. The advisers of the President of the Republic finally judge “complex” the question of whether to return “developed countries automatically responsible for climatic disasters”.
At the podium on Monday, Emmanuel Macron felt that it was “a fair debate” and praised his counterparts who carried this topic. However, he did not come out in favor of a new financial mechanism, referring to “a group of high-level sages”, set up with the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, the task of finding “innovative financing”.
What can we expect from COP27 on this dossier?
Concrete progress has been made in recent months, despite the failure of Glasgow, where rich countries blocked the proposal to create a financing mechanism. Scotland, soon followed by Wallonia and Denmark, had become the first entity to promise financial aid for loss and damage. In Sharm el-Sheikh, the countries of the South obtained their first victory on Sunday 6 November. An item has been added to the official conference agenda discussing “issues relating to financing arrangements in response to loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change, including a focus on loss and damage management”.
However, our interlocutors are not optimistic about an unblocking of the negotiations. “Developed countries will try to re-serve reheated meals, humanitarian aid, the early warning system, insurance mechanisms”, predicts Fanny Petitbon. In Karachi, Sidra Adil, who was unable to travel to Egypt for lack of a visa, does not expect much from an event where decisions are “non-binding” and where the most affected communities are poorly represented. The researcher believes that developed countries are wrong to ignore the subject: “If Pakistan or Bangladesh is hit, refugees will literally rush to the countries of the North.” For Azeez Abubakar, of the Loss and Damage Youth Coalition, developed countries must “get out of their bubble and care about people in other countries”. Invited Monday, November 7 on franceinfo, the President of Senegal, Macky Sall, warned: “If nothing is done, we we will leave Sharm el-Sheikh with a taste of unfinished business.”
* Links followed by an asterisk are in English.