At COP27, Pakistan to lead push for making polluting countries compensate poor nations.

WASHINGTON -- Flood-hit Pakistan, which heads an influential bloc of nations at the United Nations, is set to lead the push at the upcoming U.N. Climate Summit in Egypt for compensation to developing countries suffering from climate change- a class of impacts collectively known as 'loss and damage."

"To the developing countries that are suffering these impacts because of the policies of industrialized countries over the past 150 years, this is a matter of climate justice,' Ambassador Munir Akram, permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN and Chairman of the Group of 77 (developing countries) and China, said in an interview with The Washington Post.

The Group, which was formed in 1964, now has 134 members and is the United Nations' biggest intergovernmental group of emerging countries.

Ambassador Akram is a member of Pakistan's top-level delegation to the summit, known as COP27, taking place in Sharm el-Sheikh from November 6 to 18.

His interview with the Post was weaved into a report from Dadu, Sindh, that highlights the vast devastation caused by the unprecedented, climate-induced floods.

Developing countries have long warned that rising temperatures would hit them the hardest, punishing the people who contributed the least to planet-warming emissions and have the fewest resources to cope, the report pointed out. Now, as the floods in Pakistan and other recent disasters make the consequences of climate change impossible to ignore, it said, the world is gearing up for a showdown over who should pay the costs.

The G-77/China has called for the creation of a loss-and-damage fund, which hard-hit countries can rely on for immediate assistance after a disaster, rather than waiting for humanitarian aid or loans that will drive them into debt.

Developed countries have historically resisted such calls, fearing liability for the billions of dollars in damage that could be linked to their emissions. But the dramatic escalation in extreme weather, coupled with deep frustration over unfulfilled climate funding promises from the industrialized world, have put pressure on nations like the United States - which has resisted providing compensation - to shift their stance, the Post said.

'With the Pakistan disaster the poster child of climate impacts, there is a change in the political mood, I think,' Ambassador Akram was quoted as saying.

On his part, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Thursday there is 'no more time to postpone' the loss...