“I think we need to have an open and honest discussion about the loss and damage, something that countries like Canada and many developed nations have refused to do so far,” Stephen Guilbeau, Canada’s environment and climate change minister, said in a his interview at the Canada Pavilion at the summit venue in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. With Prime Minister Justin Trudeau skipping COP27 to focus on other events in Asia, Guilbeau is Canada’s highest-ranking representative at the UN summit. Guilbeault said richer countries tend to “park” the discussion of loss and damage “in a very technical area, refusing to have a real political discussion about it, and I’ve seen how incredibly frustrating it is for developing countries.” . With Prime Minister Justin Trudeau skipping COP27 to focus on other events in Asia, Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Gilboll is Canada’s highest-ranking representative at the UN summit. (Stephanie Jenzer/CBC) For many nations in the Global South, it is a hard-fought belief that greenhouse gas emissions from richer countries are responsible for irreparable damage to their ecosystems and must be compensated. The idea has been floating around various UN gatherings for decades, and many African nations were bitterly disappointed that it never made it onto the official agenda at last year’s COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland. This year, however, Egypt is hosting and a decisive diplomatic push ahead of the summit by Foreign Minister and COP President Sameh Shoukry, with the support of other African countries as well as Pakistan, has changed the dynamic. So how much would the potential bill be and who would pay it?
Too early to tell, says Guilbeault, adding that everything has to be negotiated. But it signals one of the key concerns about the debates. “It can’t be about liability. Developed nations can’t sign off on something that would make the Canadian public and the European public and the American public responsible for Lord knows how many hundreds of billions of dollars in reparations.”

More specific numbers

Some European nations have given hints about what they think the initial amounts might be. Germany has said it will set aside 170 million euros ($230 million Cdn) in a potential damage and loss fund. Belgium will increase the 2.5 million euros ($3.3 million) already earmarked to help Mozambique. Scotland, which hosted COP26, is dipping into a “climate justice” fund to provide about $10 million, while Denmark, the first country to contribute, is providing about $18 million. Flooding in Pakistan has displaced more than 30 million people since June, prompting his government to push to include “loss and damage” on the COP27 agenda. (Stephanie Jenzer/CBC) But the amounts are tiny compared to the potential costs of climate disasters. Britain’s Chatham House has reported that potential irreparable losses from climate-related damage worldwide could exceed US$1 trillion by 2050. “Loss and damage” due to historical emissions is considered separate and distinct from another key UN climate initiative dealing with future mitigation and adaptation.
Canada and Germany have been tasked with raising US$100 billion a year from wealthier countries to help developing countries upgrade their infrastructure and support the green energy transition.
Canada’s contribution to the fund is Cdn$5.3 billion over three years. The total amount of money now in this fund is unclear, but before COP26, it was around $17 billion. Golden camels welcome visitors to Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, outside the COP27 site. (Stephanie Jenzer/CBC) UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has proposed that by 2030 up to $340 billion will be needed annually for adaptation and mitigation.

Compensation vs Mitigation

The tension between mitigating future climate damage and providing compensation for past actions has pitted the world’s two biggest polluters, the United States and China, against each other. China’s current emissions account for about 27 percent of all greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere, which is more than two and a half times that of the United States. Historically, however, no country has emitted more carbon than the US Not surprisingly, the U.S. government wants to focus on addressing future climate adaptation costs, while China is more interested in making the U.S. pay for its past actions, said Nick Mabey, founder of E3G, an independent group. think tank on climate change in London. , UK “China is supporting vulnerable countries and asking for money for losses and damages, despite being concerned about compensation claims as well,” Mabey said. “US backs calls for more mitigation.” China’s top climate envoy, Xie Zhenhua, appeared to confirm this dynamic when he told COP27 delegates on Wednesday that “countries like ours, which have not contributed significantly to [historical] greenhouse gas emission’, he should not have to pay. China’s climate envoy Xie Zhenhua, seen speaking at COP27 on Wednesday, said that “countries like ours, which have not contributed significantly to [historical] greenhouse gas emissions’, should not pay compensation. (Reuters) So far, US climate envoy John Kerry, who was highly visible at the event in Egypt, has refused to put US money behind the loss and damage. While the British government under new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has supported the inclusion of loss and damage on the COP27 agenda, there are many critics in the ruling Conservative Party. Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in an interview that because the Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain, his country pumps more carbon into the atmosphere than any other. “What we can’t do, I’m afraid, is make up for it with some kind of reparations,” he told The New York Times during an online forum in Sharm el-Sheikh. A columnist in Britain’s right-wing Daily Telegraph went further, declaring that poorer nations “owe us” for the invention of cars and factories, and flatly rejected the idea of ​​any country paying reparations.

Canada as a “voice of reason”

The Egyptian hosts of this year’s summit are trying to prevent such polarized views from reaching the negotiating rooms. “The reality today, regardless of historical legal responsibility in this context, is that a continent like Africa is responsible for only 4 percent of global emissions with about 18 or 19 percent of the world’s population,” said Wael Aboulmagd , Egyptian. Special Representative of the President of COP27, in an interview with CBC. From 2010 to 2014, Aboulmagd served as Egypt’s ambassador to Ottawa. He said “as a voice of reason,” Canada can play a constructive role as the climate summit grapples with the details of how a loss and damage fund would work. “The expectation is with the broad traditions of empathy, fairness and justice that define Canada … they will be at the forefront of those willing to provide financial assistance, technology, capacity, building,” Aboulmagd said. Wael Aboulmagd is Egypt’s Special Envoy to the COP27 President and former Egyptian Ambassador to Canada. (Stephanie Jenzer/CBC) Without Trudeau’s presence, Canada lacked the profile of having a national leader at the forum. Most European countries, for example, sent their president or prime minister. US President Joe Biden will arrive on Friday. But Guilbeault pointed out that Canada will have a prominent role at COP15, a major UN summit on biodiversity next month in Montreal. The environment minister also said Canada’s moves to curb emissions in the oil and gas sector and move toward selling only zero-emission vehicles by 2035 demonstrate climate leadership. Canada is responsible for about 2% of global emissions. Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions have been slowly declining since 2007. They peaked again in 2018, equaling 740 megatonnes of carbon dioxide, and have declined in the last two years for which data are available, Guilbeault said. “We don’t have the numbers for 2021 yet, but I understand and share the impatience and frustration of people who would like to see emissions come down quickly.” E3G’s Nick Mabey was less tactful. “I think Canada has kind of ‘off the boil’ after being an active player [in climate action] for quite some time,” he said.
“It’s a little surprising for such a large broadcaster and a major technological powerhouse, [Canada] it seems to have fallen behind the leading end of the pack, and it’s kind of the rest of the pack now.”