Loss and damage the priority for least developed countries at upcoming climate negotiations

Tackling the losses and damage caused by climate change is the most pressing issue for the group of 46 least developed countries (LDCs) at the forthcoming COP27 climate negotiations in Egypt. The group also wants to see concrete action by rich countries to provide more finance for the most vulnerable people to adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Civil society groups and representatives from vulnerable countries have been fighting to get loss and damage – the impacts of climate change that are so severe humans cannot adapt to them – on the agenda in Egypt. Richer countries who are most responsible for carbon emissions but suffer the least from climate change, continue to resist calls for climate finance commitment from those living on the front lines of the climate crisis.

Madeleine Diouf Sarr, chair of the Least Developed Countries Group, said: “The world’s response to the challenge of climate change has been devastatingly slow and the resulting rise in global greenhouse gas emissions has already led to irreversible loss of lives, livelihoods and cultures, and damage to people and property. 

“The global response to the now inevitable impacts of climate change must take centre stage at COP27.”

The paper 'Responding to a growing crisis: LDC expectations for COP27' sets out the group’s aims, including additional financial support for addressing loss and damage caused by climate change in developing countries.

More effort needs to be put in to providing technical assistance to countries facing loss and damage through the body set up to do this three years ago, known as the Santiago Network. The process for assessing progress towards the long-term goals set out in the Paris Agreement in 2015 must consider and capture the extent of loss and damage and efforts to address it.

Inadequate efforts to reduce carbon emissions mean that climate change is now inevitable. The LDC Group is demanding that the parties at COP27 refocus their efforts on adapting to climate change.

Developed countries must cover the shortfall in delivering the US$100 billion per year they promised to developing countries by 2020 for addressing climate change. And as they work on setting a new finance goal to kick in after 2025, they must listen to the needs of those countries most affected.