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The wealthiest countries are responsible for most of the pollution that causes climate change. So should they pay other countries for the damages, like intense storms? That's a key question at the COP29 negotiations going on in Azerbaijan this week. As Lauren Sommer reports from NPR's Climate Desk, the first payments are starting to go out.
LAUREN SOMMER, BYLINE: Cyclone Freddy was a monster storm, the longest-lasting tropical cyclone ever recorded. In 2023, it slammed into the east coast of Africa. It was 2 in the morning when floodwater started pouring into Christopher Bingala's house. He lived in a small village in southern Malawi with his six kids.
CHRISTOPHER BINGALA: (Through interpreter) My house was filled with water. The whole house was filled up with water, so the house eventually collapsed.
SOMMER: His livestock got washed away, but he managed to get his kids to higher ground. Food quickly became scarce.
BINGALA: (Through interpreter) We got to a point where we would eat meat from animals that have died from the cyclone because we lacked food. And this was a very difficult moment in my life.
SOMMER: The government eventually moved him and thousands of others to a temporary camp. As a subsistence farmer, he didn't have the resources to start over. But then he got a cash payment of about $750. He used it to build a new house for his family in a village that's less prone to flooding.
BINGALA: (Through interpreter) They are better off here because they're not in danger of the water challenges that we had back in Mahkanga (ph). This is a dry and upper land, so my children are OK, and they are happy. They are living a happy life.
SOMMER: The cash payment Bingala got is from a new pot of money specifically for disasters that are being made worse by climate change. It's known as loss and damage. The funds came from the government of Scotland and were given out by the nonprofit GiveDirectly. That's where Yolande Wright works. She says countries like Malawi are suffering some of the worst damage from a problem they did little to cause.
YOLANDE WRIGHT: The very poor, low-income households in Malawi have contributed the least to the climate problem. Many of them are not connected to electricity. They don't own a car or even a motorbike.
SOMMER: Almost half of all the greenhouse gas emissions since the industrial revolution have come from the United States and Europe. So a year ago, they agreed to create a loss and damage fund to compensate more vulnerable countries. Wright says the program in Malawi is one of the first pilots. About 2,700 people used it for things to restart their lives.
WRIGHT: From basic agricultural material - seeds, fertilizer - to livestock. They've also invested in getting their children back into school.
SOMMER: Richer countries have agreed to supply more of this loss and damage funding. Around $720 million was pledged so far, but much more will be needed. One study found the amount will be $250 billion per year by 2030. It's why many vulnerable countries are pushing for a bigger commitment at this year's climate negotiations, which are now underway. Philip Davis, prime minister of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is one of them.
PRIME MINISTER PHILIP DAVIS: We just hope that the Global North and the nations whose economy is fueled by the emissions - they come to the plate and take up their responsibility to look at what they're causing us.
SOMMER: Like many island nations, Davis says the cost of hurricanes and rising sea levels will be insurmountable for The Bahamas. And richer nations will be affected by that, too.
DAVIS: If they do nothing, they will be the worst for it. When my islands are swallowed up by the sea, then what do my people do? They either become climate refugees, or they'll be doomed to a watery grave.
SOMMER: The impacts of climate change, he says, don't stay within borders.
Lauren Sommer, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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