COP27: US bid to have China pay pollution costs puts climate cooperation at risk, observers warn
- Less-polluting countries battling the effects of climate change have urged the West to pay damages for exploiting their land and resources
- The US has softened its opposition to a ‘loss and damage’ fund, but insists that China be seen as a developed nation and pay its share
For the first time, countries devastated by increasingly severe and frequent climate change-driven natural disasters are urging the West to pay damages for exploiting their land and resources, both historically and in the present day.
Beijing, which asserts that it is a developing economy, has consistently pointed to the UN doctrine that industrialised countries, which generated most of the greenhouse gases now in the atmosphere, should take a bigger role in climate financing.
Washington has always rejected the setting up of such a “loss and damage” fund but recently toned down its resistance, while arguing that China should pay up as well.
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Calls for ‘climate justice’ as COP27 puts focus on compensation for poorer, vulnerable countries
With US-China climate change cooperation already suspended following US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s controversial visit to Taiwan, observers worry Washington’s latest assertion may burn one of the last remaining bridges between the rivals.