Climate Lost and Damage to find its feet at COP21?
Hopefully, least developed countries that are facing the negative impacts of climate change may find relief in adapting and mitigating to the effects as Climate Justice Programme pushes for a Carbon Levy Project.
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Loss and Damage Mechanism made an inroad into the latest version of the agreement released in Paris on Wednesday after days of negotiations on many other issues affecting the global temperature.
But, countries are wearing two lenses, the 'pull and push', depending on their interests and it is therefore, not clear what the final outcome for loss and damage would be.
The Carbon Levy Project is targeting at least $50 billion to be channeled into the Loss and Damage Mechanism to support vulnerable countries in the 48 Least Developed Countries.
Climate Justice Programme has justified why big oil, coal, and gas companies should pay for Loss and Damage stating that the 13 largest fossil fuel companies in the world made an annual profit of $132 billion with an estimated $50 billion annual loss and damage for the 48 least developed countries.
The programme is seeking to rescue hundreds of countries who have already suffered from the negative impacts of climate change.
"The fossil fuel industry is most responsible for climate change and should pay the costs of devastation their product wreaks", Yeb Sano stated.
A former Philippines climate change commissioner, Yeb Sano, who was pivotal in lobbying for the Warsaw loss and damage mechanism after parts of his country were devastated by Typhoon Haiyan in 2013, observed that the issue was being treated in a "token way" in Paris.
"Governments refuse to accept that loss and damage must include compensation for those who are already suffering and for those already incurring losses and damage from the impacts of climate change. It is absolutely a weak appreciation of the concept," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
"A conservative estimate of current loss and damage for the 48 least developed countries is at least $50 billion per year, rising to more than $100 billion per year for all vulnerable developing countries", Climate Justice has estimated.
If the proposal by Climate Justice proposal flies through with the establishment of the Carbon Credit Levy, the bills for some of the biggest oil, coal and gas companies such as Chevron, ExxonMobile, Saudi Aramco, BP, Gazprom and Shell could soar in years to come.
The Loss and Damage Mechanism was one of the measures that was adopted at COP19 in Warsaw, Poland to support countries already suffering from effects of climate change.