Germany wants the massive economic damage resulting from global warming to be discussed at this yr’s United Nations climate talks, Germany’s foreign minister said Friday.
Vulnerable countries have long demanded that big polluters be held accountable for the results that their greenhouse gas emissions are having around the globe, including the destruction brought on by extreme weather and sea level rise resulting from rising global temperatures.
But wealthy nations that account for nearly all of planet-warming emissions because the start of the economic era have largely opposed efforts to formally debate the `loss and damage’ issue for fear they may need to pay climate reparations.
Last yr’s U.N. climate talks in Glasgow failed to succeed in agreement on establishing a special fund for loss and damage.
Speaking after a gathering along with her counterpart from Pakistan, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the recent devastating floods within the South Asian nation had shown “what dramatic consequences the climate crisis is having in all regions.”
“As one among the hardest-hit countries worldwide, Pakistan is paying a high price for global CO2 emissions,” Baerbock, a member of the environmentalist Greens party, told reporters in Berlin.
“That’s why Germany will work toward a good sharing of the prices on the COP27 in Egypt, putting the query of climate adaptation, but particularly also the query of loss and damage, on the agenda,” she said.
Germany’s climate envoy, former Greenpeace chief Jennifer Morgan, and Chile’s environment minister, Maisa Rojas, have been tasked with finding common ground amongst nations ahead of the U.N. climate talks next month within the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
Germany can also be giving Pakistan an additional 10 million euros in flood aid, taking its total commitment to 60 million euros, Baerbock said.
Pakistan’s foreign minister, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, said the “biblical floods” had affected 33 million people and at one point a 3rd of the country was underwater. Many roads, hospitals and farms in Pakistan were destroyed.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Friday that Pakistan was “on the verge of a public health disaster” resulting from the danger of diseases equivalent to cholera, malaria and dengue fever, while malnutrition also was spiking after the floods.
