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The US and EU must support climate loss and damage action
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Climate migrants
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Rescue workers help villagers to evacuate them from flooded area caused by heavy rains, in Lasbella, a district in Pakistan’s southwest Baluchistan province, Tuesday, July 26, 2022.

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By Anne Christianson, Center for American Progress and Dennis Tänzler, adelphi

 

From unprecedented flooding in Yellowstone National Park to historic wildfires right outside of London, climate change once again directly altered many people’s lives in the United States and Europe this summer. 

Yet climate change still disproportionately affects vulnerable nations that have contributed least to the problem, a fact made devastatingly clear by the ongoing flooding crises in Pakistan and Sudan, for example, where more than 30 million people have been displaced and where disease and widespread hunger now threaten further losses.

For almost 30 years, in response to climate impacts, the least-developed and most vulnerable nations have called for financial and technical loss and damage support. Unfortunately, the United States and European countries — which account for more than 40 percent of historic greenhouse gas emissions — have so far left their calls unanswered, leaving a major trust deficit in their wake which threatens to undermine national climate commitments and global goals. 

As climate impacts intensify, it is past time for wealthy nations to come to the table with a package of solutions to address loss and damage directly. This November, leaders will gather in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change conference (COP27), creating the opportunity to do just that.

 

The above excerpt was originally published in The Hill.