Wallonia will earmark one million euros to enable the most vulnerable countries facing losses and damage linked to climate change, the region’s Climate Minister Philippe Henry said on Saturday at the UN Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP26) in Glasgow.
The money will be used to help countries offset the damage, in some cases irreversible, caused by climate change beyond their adaptation capacity, Belga News Agency reports. Developed countries have been unwilling to make such commitments, fearing that establishing a third pillar of international climate financing, after attenuation and adaptation, might pave the way for a wave of court action to obtain damages and interest.
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At the start of COP26, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon made the unprecedented, surprise announcement that Scotland was earmarking 1 million pounds (close to 1.2 million euros) to finance loss and damages sustained by the countries of the South due to climate change.
On Saturday, Wallonia followed suit, pledging the sum of one million euros for loss and damages.
“This is an important gesture, in synergy with the same commitment by the Scottish Government,” Minister Henry told Belga News Agency.
“Implementation modalities will be coordinated between the climate ministers of the two regions,” added the Walloon minister, who took part in the negotiations at COP26 on loss and damages.
