A trillion dollars is a small price for the damage wealthy nations have done to our planet

Editorial: The ‘bill’ represents a tiny proportion of the riches the industrialised world has generated over the centuries, causing lasting harm to ecosystems and livelihoods

Processes such as Cop, slow and flawed as they are, are pretty much all the planet has got (AP)

On the principle that the polluters pay, the rich industrialised world has got off lightly for its crimes against the planet. One of the more controversial items on the United Nations Cop27 summit agenda is the bill for “loss and damage” to the environment of the many poorer countries now critically affected by climate change.

A sum of $1 trillion (a thousand billion dollars) has been suggested as a global total by the UN, in the way of recompense, and to pay for ameliorative and adaptive measures to cope with continuing environmental degradation.

Cue the outrage from the rich world. It’s perfectly true that $1 trillion is a great deal of money in anyone’s language, and especially at a time of distinct economic distress and exceptional pressure on the poor of the rich nations.