Fight to make climate polluters pay for crushing poor countries at Cop31

Detailed summary

Nepal’s disaster showed adaptation funding to help people withstand extreme events would cost less than paying for the damage afterwards ...

The way Adrian Martinez Blanco describes climate finance sounds straight out of satire.

“Let’s say I have a house and you break the windows and then you come and bring me a broom so I can pick up the glass,” he begins.

“We’re co-operating – that’s nice, good for you. But your obligation was not to break the glass.

“Then to repair it, you say maybe if you had this insurance that I sell you, you will be able to repair it. Or I will loan you the money to repair it.

“That’s pretty much climate finance. Somebody’s making profit out of the harm of somebody breaking the window of my house.”

In his analogy, the breakage is fossil fuel use driving climate change and the response to the breakage is how wealthy countries responsible for the damage duck and dive paying for it.

Blanco, director of Costa Rican non-governmental organisation La Ruta del Clima (The Climate Route), is entitled to be cynical.

Once again, climate finance is struggling to get due attention or action at a global climate summit.

The Loss and Damage Fund agreed at Cop27 in 2022 has $820 million (€730 million) in pledged finance, only half of it delivered.

Opening of the article, excerpted from The Irish Times. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.