COP27: Island nations lash out at rich countries over climate change

On Tuesday (November 8), small island nations came together and raised a call for windfall tax on oil companies in order to compensate developing countries for climate change.

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley came down heavily on industrialised nations at COP27 Climate Summit. Underlining that rich nations were historically responsible for climate change and global warming of today, she questioned whether poorer nations were to 'face double jeopardy' by giving their sweat and blood for rich nations and now having to pay the cost of climate change.

“We were the ones whose blood, sweat and tears financed the industrial revolution,” she said. “Are we now to face double jeopardy by having to pay the cost as a result of those greenhouse gases from the industrial revolution? That is fundamentally unfair,” said Mottley

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Mia Mottley called Monday for a 10 percent tax on oil companies to fund loss and damage.

The contentious issue of loss and damage was added to the COP27 agenda after intense negotiations. The United States and EuropeanUnion have dragged their feet on the issue in the past, fearful of creating an open-ended reparations regime

At COP27, Mottley found an ally in Gaston Browne, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda.

"It is about time that these companies are made to pay a global COP carbon tax on these profits as a source of funding for loss and damage," Browne told world leaders.

"While they are profiting, the planet is burning," said Browne, who was speaking on behalf of the 39-nation Alliance of Small Island States, many of whose very existence is threatened by rising sea levels and increasingly intense tropical storms.

(With inputs from agencies)

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