At COP27, Developing Nations Have a Message for Polluters: Pay Up – The New York Times

Flooding in Sindh Province, Pakistan, in September. A third of the country was inundated by extreme rainfallCredit…Fareed Khan/Associated Press

Source: At COP27, Developing Nations Have a Message for Polluters: Pay Up – The New York Times

In Pakistan, flooding this summer killed 1,700 people and left one-third of the country underwater. In Fiji, entire villages are retreating inland to escape rising seas. In Kenya, persistent drought has killed livestock and devastated livelihoods.

They are among scores of developing countries that face irreversible damage from climate change but have done little to cause the crisis. And they are demanding compensation from the parties they see as responsible: wealthier nations that have burned oil, gas and coal for decades and created pollution that is dangerously heating the planet.

Across cultures and centuries, the idea that if you harm your neighbor’s property, you owe restitution is a commonly held notion, found even in the Bible.

But as a legal and practical matter, it has been extraordinarily difficult to apply that principle to climate change. Rich nations like the United States and European Union have opposed the idea of explicitly compensating poorer countries for climate disasters already underway, fearing it could open them to unlimited liability.