Climate Progress Is Happening, Just Not Fast Enough

This year’s United Nations climate conference in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt — COP27, the latest in a series dating back to 1995 — achieved two important victories.

First, there was a hard-won agreement to start compensating poorer countries for harm due to years’ worth of greenhouse gases emitted by the rich world, which the US had long resisted. The ethics of the “loss and damage” question were never in dispute. Rich countries have already emitted almost all the carbon the atmosphere can stand if climate change is to be arrested. They owe poorer countries generous help in coping with the consequences. But it’s crucial that new resources are channeled in ways that help cut future emissions.

The principle of disproportionate responsibility recognized at COP27 can and should guide rich-country governments in broadening their approaches to the problem — for example, through the role of multilateral development banks in supporting climate-related investments.