Rich countries driving the climate crisis have agreed to pay developing nations for damage. But collecting the money will be tough.

Rich countries driving the climate crisis have agreed to pay developing nations for damage. But collecting the money will be tough.

In the end, no one got everything they wanted at the United Nations' climate summit. Climate diplomats left Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, with — 30 years in the making — for rich countries to pay developing nations for the damages they are already facing from a warming planet. But the negotiators who gathered in the resort city along the Red Sea failed to hammer out a more aggressive plan to curb the greenhouse gas emissions that are driving the crisis. Nearly 200 countries on Sunday agreed to set up a "loss and damage" fund after weeks of negotiations and more than 36 hours after the annual climate meeting had been slated to end. The issue was described as the litmus test of a successful COP27 by developing nations and UN Secretary-General António Guterres, especially given the summit's location on the African continent, where people are most vulnerable to climate change yet have only contributed about 3% of global emissions. "This COP has taken an important step towards justice," Guterres said. "But let's be clear. Our planet is still in the emergency room. We need to drastically reduce emissions now — and this is an issue this COP did not address. A