Why COP26 failed to address loss and damage from climate change

On 9 August 2021, the science working group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report showed that greenhouse gas emissions from human activities are responsible for approximately 1.1°C of warming since 1850-1900. Climate change is not just what is happening now and will happen in the future but also what has been happening for over a century. Today we are dealing with the loss and damage caused by this historical warming.  

Loss and damage is generally used to refer to the environmental deterioration that can be scientifically attributed to the increase in global temperatures of at least 1 degrees Celsius due to greenhouse gas emissions since the industrial revolution. In 2013, COP19 established the Warsaw International Loss and Damage Mechanism; ahead of COP26 in Glasgow last year, the most vulnerable developing countries made it clear that they expected the conference to make further progress on the issue. Developing countries jointly proposed the creation of the Glasgow Facility for Financing Loss and Damage following a call by Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina, who chairs the group of the over 50 most vulnerable countries known as the Climate Vulnerable Forum, for a “Glasgow Climate Emergency Agreement”.