After a year when powerful hurricanes, floods, droughts and fires have racked up hundreds of billions of dollars in damage in countries from the United States to Bangladesh, you might think their leaders would be looking desperately to the U.N. climate talks for new ways to cover those costs. Some environmentalists have suggested a range of ideas to raise cash – from a tiny tax on each stock trade and other financial transactions, to a levy on airplane flights. But richer countries, so far, have blocked action in moving ahead on any of them at the conference this week in Bonn.
Sven Harmeling, CARE International’s climate change advocacy coordinator says “there’s no real move to discuss the financial instruments we need,” he said. “They’re not even willing to start the discussion.”
Instead, countries are looking to a single solution to fill the gap: insurance policies.
Slow-moving crises, such as sea level rise, are nearly impossible to insure. Insurance payouts can provide effective help for big, sudden disasters – a powerful hurricane or flood – but aren’t so effective at helping out with the increasing drumbeat of smaller but accumulating everyday losses. And what happens when disasters come so frequently, and at such cost, that they are no longer insurable? That’s a worry, experts working on loss and damage issues say.
Even the United States this year has been slammed by hurricane damage, flooding and runaway forest fires. The costs of Hurricane Harvey alone could reach as much as $190 billion, U.S. agencies estimate.
There’s the longstanding fear among rich countries that moving ahead on dealing with loss and damage will end up with them being held financially liable for the costs of damage around the world driven largely by their own use of fossil fuels over decades. But lobbying by powerful industries against taxes on things like fossil fuel use and financial transactions also are playing a role, said Harjeet Singh, who leads climate policy work for aid agency ActionAid. “These are the same vested interested that have got us to a stage where the only planet where we can live is becoming uninhabitable for many,” he said. “We’re moving towards a very dangerous world if we continue to serve the interests of the same lobbies.”
Failure to find answers will have consequences for rich countries as well as poor –and not just from worsening disaster losses. If poor families can no longer survive, they will move, he warned, adding to migration pressures around the world. “With some support, they can stay where they are, with some finance and instruments to help them recover. Trust me, the majority of people do not want to move,” Singh said.
Sven Harmeling, CARE International’s climate change advocacy coordinator says “there’s no real move to discuss the financial instruments we need,” he said. “They’re not even willing to start the discussion.”
Instead, countries are looking to a single solution to fill the gap: insurance policies.
Slow-moving crises, such as sea level rise, are nearly impossible to insure. Insurance payouts can provide effective help for big, sudden disasters – a powerful hurricane or flood – but aren’t so effective at helping out with the increasing drumbeat of smaller but accumulating everyday losses. And what happens when disasters come so frequently, and at such cost, that they are no longer insurable? That’s a worry, experts working on loss and damage issues say.
Even the United States this year has been slammed by hurricane damage, flooding and runaway forest fires. The costs of Hurricane Harvey alone could reach as much as $190 billion, U.S. agencies estimate.
There’s the longstanding fear among rich countries that moving ahead on dealing with loss and damage will end up with them being held financially liable for the costs of damage around the world driven largely by their own use of fossil fuels over decades. But lobbying by powerful industries against taxes on things like fossil fuel use and financial transactions also are playing a role, said Harjeet Singh, who leads climate policy work for aid agency ActionAid. “These are the same vested interested that have got us to a stage where the only planet where we can live is becoming uninhabitable for many,” he said. “We’re moving towards a very dangerous world if we continue to serve the interests of the same lobbies.”
Failure to find answers will have consequences for rich countries as well as poor –and not just from worsening disaster losses. If poor families can no longer survive, they will move, he warned, adding to migration pressures around the world. “With some support, they can stay where they are, with some finance and instruments to help them recover. Trust me, the majority of people do not want to move,” Singh said.
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