Contentious climate debate: Should rich nations pay for damage done?

Annual climate negotiations tend to focus on what countries can do to slow global warming by cutting emissions, a task that benefits rich and poor countries alike

The aftermath of Hurricane Irma has left deep scars in the tiny island nations that were in the path of the Category Five storm just before it slammed into Florida.

The toll in Antigua and Barbuda added up to more than $220 million, according to one assessment backed by the United Nations—more than a quarter of the annual tax revenue collected for 2017. The island of Barbuda lost nearly half of its houses. And the island has nothing like the economic might of the U.S. to alleviate the damage.

Scientists have sharpened their analytical tools in the four years since