Some small island developing states (SIDS), in their presentations at COP27 have proposed a tax on rich countries who have benefitted from the use of fossil fuels with the proceeds to be used by developing countries including Caribbean islands which are sinking and otherwise suffering disproportionately from the impact of climate change.

COP27 is a climate summit organised by the United Nations to be attended by representatives from up to 200 countries around the world who have signed up to previous climate protocols. It is being hosted this year from November 6 to 18 in Egypt.

Bloomberg, a US-based business news source, reported this week on presentations made by Antigua, The Bahamas and Barbados where heads of government presented new means of funding climate action programmes.

Philip Davis, prime minister of The Bahamas, in an interview on Tuesday in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, said he wanted “an acknowledgement that the industrialised world that became wealthy as they are today was as a direct result of their use of fossil fuels and coal,” adding, “So should they not be held responsible for that?”

Davis delivered a national statement at the COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, on Tuesday.

Hurricane Dorian, in 2019, damage an estimated 40 per cent of The Bahamas, an occurrence which he noted was directly linked to the impacts of climate change.

Bloomberg noted how Caribbean nations have emerged as innovators in climate finance in 2022, also calling for compensation. Barbados, in September disclosed a plan to restructure some of its debt in a way that will help pay ocean conservation.

Governments contend that small-island nations bear virtually no responsibility for pollution that’s intensifying storms and pushing up the seas.

“We only account for maybe a half of 1 per cent of emissions,” Gaston Brown, prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, said at COP27 of island nations like his. “So what we’re asking for is climate justice.”

Bloomberg notes how “developing nations from all over the world are collaborating at COP27 to secure more money to help pay for their transition to clean energy, adapt to increased warming, and respond to destruction caused by climate change. This is the first year that such damages, known as ‘loss and damage’ in bureaucratic speak, is formally on the agenda at the United Nations summit.”

It could deliver money and technical assistance from wealthy, emitting countries to developing nations that suffer storms, droughts and heat waves, it was noted.

Robertson, a lead negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States, said 2024 would be the earliest date for establishing a compensation mechanism; however, there needs to be an agreement on creating a new fund — and sourcing what could amount to trillions of dollars.

So far at COP27, Germany, Austria, Belgium and Scotland are amongst the few wealthy countries to have committed loss-and-damage contributions valued in the millions said Bloomberg.

Davis, the Bahamian PM is working fast to make The Bahamas the world’s likely first seller of carbon credits linked to the ocean — what he calls “blue carbon credits”. The island announced its blue carbon credit plan in April, with the goal of getting voluntary carbon credits on the international market by the end of the year. Purchasers of carbon credits usually count them against greenhouse gas emissions generated.

Davis says he also supports putting in place “a 2 per cent levy or tax on oil exports and wants that money to be put in a fund for covering the costs of losses and damages.”

PM Gaston Browne of Antigua and Barbuda is also interested in a fossil fuel tax but proposes a tax on profits.

Speaking at a COP27 press conference, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley was quoted as stating, “We have a very simple principle: Those who cause the problem should help pay for the problem,” she said. “Those who benefit from the situation egregiously, in other words, those whose returns are over and above an acceptable level should also put a little something in the pot.”

Davis said that islanders may soon become climate refugees as the effect of rising temperatures takes effect. “We’re either going to be climate refugees, or we’ll find ourselves in watery graves.”