With this year's Conference of the Parties having concluded yesterday, no formal proposals on rich nations agreeing to a loss and damage fund seems to have been made.
It is nothing short of disappointing to see that, when it comes to climate talks, maintaining the status quo is still the choice for rich countries, countries whose early industrialization not only took a severe toll on our planet but the effects of which are still overwhelming underdeveloped and developing nations.
However, the discussion does not end with COP27.
Rich nations need to understand that it is because of the polluting ways of their past, and to an extent the present, that poorer nations are feeling the burn. Whatever reasoning they may have against the establishment of a loss and damage fund is flimsy at best as the effects of their industrialization can be felt the world throughout.
Bangladesh is one of the countries most vulnerable to the adverse effects of the global climate crisis -- a problem that has become urgent and wholly unavoidable for the whole planet. While individual countries in the past have pledged monetary support to combat climate change, such as the UK's 6 million pounds from three years ago, the extent of the damage caused by most of the developed countries dwarves such amounts.
Bangladesh has proven that we are willing to do what it takes to mitigate the effects of climate change at a local level by building on organic resistance methods. But mitigation is but one aspect of undoing the centuries worth of damage that the early industrialization of developed nations wrought.
The time for needless pontification over what's feasible or not has long been gone. Now is the time for action.
