COP27: Polluters must pay for climate change, poor nations tell rich

Small island states already buffeted by violent ocean storms and sea-level rise called on oil companies to shell out some of the recent profits, while developing African states called for more funds

Leaders from poor countries criticised wealthy governments and oil companies for driving global warming, using 

their speeches on Tuesday at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt to demand that they pay up for damages being inflicted on their economies. 

Small island states already buffeted by increasingly violent ocean storms and sea-level rise called on oil companies to shell out some of their huge recent profits, while developing African states called for more international funds.

“The oil and gas industry continues to earn almost $3 billion  daily in profits,” said Gaston Browne, Antigua’s prime minister, speaking at the conference on behalf of the Alliance of Small Island States.

“It is about time that these companies are made to pay a global carbon tax on their profits as a source of funding 

for loss and damage,” he said. “While they are profiting, the planet is burning.”

But some countries at the conference were more likely to direct their frustration at wealthy nations, not drillers.

Senegal’s President Macky Sall told the conference that poor developing countries in Africa needed increased funding from rich nations for adaptation to worsening climate change, and would resist calls for an immediate shift away from fossil fuels African countries need to fuel their economies. “Let’s be clear, we are in favour of reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. 

But we Africans cannot accept that our vital interests be ignored,” he said.

‘Developing countries need $1 trn a year in climate finance’

Developing countries need to work with investors, rich countries, and development banks to secure $1 trillion a year in external financing for climate action by the end of the decade and to match that with their own funds, a report said on Tuesday.

Commissioned by the current and previous climate summit hosts, Egypt and Britain, the report, released at the COP27 summit in Egypt, said the funding was required to  cut emissions, and boost resilience.