Rich nations hit brakes on climate aid at UN talks

Geneva : Rich countries including the European Union and the United States have pushed back against efforts to put financial help for poor nations suffering the devastating effects of global warming firmly on the agenda for this year’s U.N. climate summit. Observers and campaigners attending a ten-day preparatory meeting in Bonn, Germany, that’s wrapping up Thursday expressed frustration at the resistance shown by developed nations to formally discussing how poor countries can get more aid when they’re hit by climate disasters. “Rich countries, particularly the EU, spiked the discussion about loss and damage at every single turn,” said Teresa Anderson of the campaign group ActionAid International. Delegates from developing countries had hoped growing awareness of the severe economic cost that global warming is already having for billions of people around the world would help move the needle on an issue that has long split rich and poor nations. Those hopes were fuelled last month, when officials from the Group of Seven leading economies for the first time acknowledged the need for more public and private money to avert and address the “adverse impacts of climate change.” The meeting in Bonn, which is home to the U.N. climate office, was designed to lay the foundations for the upcoming climate summit in Egypt’s seaside resort of Sharm-el-Sheikh in November.