"When will the world's polluters start paying for the mess they made?," 2 May 2018

Warmer seas have made tropical storms and coastal flooding more destructive than before, and that is before we consider the human costs of lost lives, homes, roofs, jobs and livelihoods... We are endeavouring to waterproof our livelihoods and societies. But to do so will cost more than 100% of our GDP... It is not only unjust that we should pay the costs of loss and damage from a climate change we did not cause, this very iniquity is a force behind climate change... The effective solution lies in the polluter pays principle and international solidarity envisaged by the 2013 Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage, later enshrined in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement... Resources to offset climate-related losses and damages need to be scaled up and the perpetrators, not the victims, must pay. Serious consideration must be given to solutions like a climate damages tax on fossil fuel extraction or consumption, a climate levy on those sectors that contribute the most to climate change and more impactful carbon pricing schemes...  Without a financing mechanism that is of the right scale, enables speedy disbursement and by making polluters pay reduces the production of greenhouse gases, the Paris and Warsaw agreements will end up being empty vessels.