14:58 10/8/24 Phiên 6 - abc
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QSI8tZVuVsDrrcFYHsAZvVND_aDTSDk-/view? usp=drivesdk
The United Nations Climate Change meeting known as cop 27, began
Sunday in the vacation town of Sharm el Sheikh Egypt. The meeting is
the 27th held since the first UN climate agreement in 1992.
This year, delegates from nearly 200 countries started the meeting by
discussing aid for poor nations suffering damage from weather events linked to changing climates.
For more than 10 years, wealthy nations have rejected official discussions
of what is called loss and damage the UN uses the term to describe
damage from weather events blamed on warming temperatures caused by human activity.
The term also is used in the insurance industry to describe things that are
or are not covered by insurance policies. United Nations officials said
they are looking for something meaningful in loss and damage.
They added they were hopeful that the issue would be discussed in the meetings.
Money for loss and damage would be in addition to two other financial
aid systems already proposed to help poor nations. Those systems aim to
reduce the amount of heat trapping gases poor nations produce
. Since 2009, the rich nations of the world have promised to spend about
$100 billion in climate aid for poor nations.Most of that money is meant
to limit the expansion of the coal, oil and natural gas industries and
replace them with what are called Green Energy Systems.
Officials now want as much as half of the promised aid to go to dealing
with future weather disasters blamed on changes in the many climates that exist around the world.
Neither form of financial support has been carried out yet but both are
separate from the idea of paying for current and past weather disasters,
such as high temperatures in India, floods in Pakistan, and droughts In Africa.
Also UN Secretary General Antonio Gutierrez, some European leaders
and US President Joe Biden have called for a tax on oil companies. The about:blank 1/3 14:58 10/8/24 Phiên 6 - abc
leaders want the energy companies to pay a windfall profits tax on gains
earned while oil prices are high. s
Leaders in many countries say they want some of that money in addition
to aid from rich nations. They say the leading industrial nations created
much of the heat trapping gases that are blamed for changing climates around the world.
Adel Thomas of the Bahamas is a scientist with climate analytic, a
nonprofit group based in Berlin. Thomas said our current levels of global
warming at 1.1 degrees Celsius have already caused dangerous and widespread losses.
And damages to nature and to billions of people. She added losses and
damages are unavoidable and unequally distributed among poor nations
the old poor and weak US and European officials say they are willing to
have loss and damage discussions after not wanting to for years.
But the top US climate diplomat John Kerry said the US will not agree to
anything that sounds like liability. Justin Mankin at Dartmouth College in
New Hampshire said loss and damage is a way of both recognizing past
harm and compensating for that past harm.
He said it is now up to the politics to either defend that harm or pay for it.
In many ways, we're talking about reparations said University of
Maryland environmental health and justice professor Shakopee Wilson.
He said it is the right term to use because the rich northern countries
gained from the use of fuels poor southern nations got the damage in
floods, droughts, refugees, and hunger.
The government of the island of Barbados has suggested changes in how
development banks loan money to poor nations It wants banks to consider
the risk of damage from climate change and disasters.
Pakistan and other nations have called for debt to be canceled. Climate
diplomat Avinash Prasad of Barbados suggests an unusual long term tax
on oil, coal and natural gas sales at current high energy prices, he
proposes that there should be no tax.
He said this would prevent inflation. But once fuel prices fall by 10% 1%
of the price drop would go to countries facing loss and damage from
disasters blamed on climate change. about:blank 2/3 14:58 10/8/24 Phiên 6 - abc
UN climate Secretary Simon Steele told reporters Sunday that discussing
loss and damage at the meetings shows progress. He said this is a difficult
subject area. It's been floating for 30 plus years.
He added what will be most telling is how discussions progress over the
next two weeks. The UN climate conference on Egypt's Red Sea coast
will last until November 18 I'm Gregory Sagal. And I'm Katie Weaver. about:blank 3/3