A deal struck at the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference in Egypt to create a “loss and damage” fund to help countries vulnerable to climate change marked a historic breakthrough in the decadeslong battle to get high-income countries, whose economic growth fueled the climate crisis, to compensate their lower-income counterparts that are now paying the price for it.
“Support for these countries, who contribute the least to global heating, but bear the brunt of its worst effects, has long been overdue,” U.N. Development Programme Administrator Achim Steiner said in a statement.
Nearly 200 nations came to an agreement in the early hours of Sunday morning in a dramatic turn of events after two weeks of otherwise lackluster negotiations at the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh.