The poorest countries demand that compensation for the damage caused by global warming occupies a prominent place on the agenda of the UN World Climate Conference (COP27), indicates a statement from this group meeting this Wednesday in Dakar.
At the same time, two senior government officials from Senegal and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) who attended the conference unanimously refused to allow their countries to give up future oil and gas exploitation under pressure from industrialized countries in name of the fight against globalization. heating
Ministers and experts from the Group of Least Developed Countries (LDCs), some 45 mainly African and Asian countries, met this week in the Senegalese capital to adopt a common position ahead of COP27.
“Countries have to fend for themselves”
Several speakers insisted on the minimal contribution of their countries to global greenhouse gas emissions and the disproportionate price they pay.
“Events such as floods, coastal erosion, non-seasonal rains… when these events occur unpredictably with sometimes extremely high intensities, countries are left to their own devices,” Senegalese Environment Minister Abdou Karim Sall told reporters. .
“It has become imperative that a fund be established to cover loss and damage, especially in less developed countries.”
The final declaration of the meeting expresses “the crucial importance of establishing a financing mechanism to deal with loss and damage”.
It calls on “all parties, in particular the big emitters, to urgently and significantly reduce (their) greenhouse gas emissions”, and urges rich countries to honor financial commitments made in the past to tackle global warming. global.
Source: BFM TV
