Extreme weather events are already affecting many developing countries and are predicted to cause further devastation. Loss and damage – the issue of how to help poor nations suffering the most extreme effects of climate collapse, from which countries cannot protect themselves – is one of the most contentious problems in the climate negotiations. Some of the world’s most vulnerable countries have prepared a document, seen by the Guardian, for debate this week at the UN general assembly. It shows poor countries preparing to call for a “climate-related and equity-based” global tax as a way to fund payments for damage and loss suffered by the developing world. Funds could be raised from a global carbon tax, a tax on air travel, a tax on heavy polluting fossil fuels used by ships, with the addition of taxes on fossil fuel extraction, or a tax on financial transactions. The discussion paper notes advantages and disadvantages of each, as well as the alternatives of drawing finance from rich countries through the world’s development banks, such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the private sector. All of the options for loss and damage of funding are likely to be difficult for rich nations to agree on at a time of soaring fossil fuel costs, rising food prices and a worldwide cost of living crisis. Although rich countries agreed at the Cop26 UN climate summit in Glasgow last year that there should be a framework for loss and damage, there is no agreement on how it could be financed or who should contribute. The most important stories on the planet. Get all the week’s environmental news – the good, the bad and the must-haves Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. The nations will meet again for new talks called Cop27 in Egypt in November, where casualties and damage are expected to again be a main topic of discussion. At Cop26, negotiations were generally good and there was consensus on the need to limit global temperature increases to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. But amid geopolitical turmoil since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, this year’s talks are likely to be more fractious. Damage to poor countries is expected to increase as the world warms further. A separate submission to the UN, from Antigua and Barbuda, warns that rising sea and air temperatures in the Caribbean could create a superstorm within years that would cause £7.9bn of damage to the island nation alone, six times its annual GDP. Adelle Thomas, director of the climate change adaptation center at the University of the Bahamas and lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said: “The case of Antigua and Barbuda highlights the need for ambitious climate action [greenhouse gas emissions reduction], adjustment and loss and damage. For Caribbean countries that have contributed least to climate change but are already struggling with the current effects, it is important that global warming is limited to 1.5C, that adaptation finance is significantly increased and made more affordable, and that there are new and additional funding and support available to address loss and damage.” The new top UN climate official, Simon Stiell, was previously the environment minister for the Caribbean island of Grenada, so he knows well the needs and vulnerabilities of small island states. It is expected to lead heated debates about the rapidly growing threat of climate collapse. Walton Webson, Antigua and Barbuda’s ambassador to the UN and president of the Alliance of Small Island States, said:[We] they deserve to live without the looming fear of debt and ruin. Our islands are bearing the brunt of a crisis we did not cause and the urgent establishment of a dedicated loss and damage fund is key to a sustainable recovery. We are experiencing climate impacts that are becoming more extreme every year.”
