Denmark paves the way for ‘loss and damage’ climate aid

COPENHAGEN: It may seem a drop in the ocean, but the $13 million Denmark has earmarked as aid for climate change-related “loss and damages” set an important precedent. It might just end up helping open a fresh flow of aid to the world´s most vulnerable countries.

Danish Development Cooperation Minister Flemming Moller told the UN General Assembly last month the money was for “climate adaptation and concrete activities to avert, minimise and address climate-induced loss and damage”.

It would mainly help island states and countries in the Sahel region of North Africa, he added. Denmark´s gesture, however modest, represents an important contribution to the debate over the still-contentious notion of “loss and damages”.

“In some ways, Denmark is a pioneer,” said Lily Salloum Lindegaard, who specialises in the politics of climate change at the Danish Institute for International Studies. Only Scotland and Belgium´s Walloon government have made such commitments previously, she added -- and on a modest scale.

“But Denmark´s commitment provides further progress if we are to address the extensive losses and damages already experienced due to climate change,” Lindegaard told AFP.

“In comparison to the needs on the ground, the Danish commitment is quite small” given the scale of the problem. But, she added: “The Danish commitment is more significant in political terms, as developed countries have long shied away from finance to losses and damages.”

As the consequences of global warming -- measured in lives lost and economic damages -- have piled up, calls for loss and damage as a separate category have mounted. Pakistan -- a nation of 220 million that has seen record monsoon rains this year linked to climate change -- emits less than one percent. Denmark´s announcement at the UN Assembly General sent a clear message, Danish Development Minister Flemming Moller Mortensen said.