The UN's COP27 climate summit kicked off today in Egypt's Sharm El-Sheikh after a year of extreme weather disasters that have fuelled calls for wealthy industrialised nations to compensate poorer countries.
Just in the past few months, climate-induced catastrophes have killed thousands, displaced millions and cost billions in damages across the world.
Massive floods devastated swaths of Pakistan and Nigeria, droughts worsened in Africa and the western United States, cyclones whipped the Caribbean, and unprecedented heatwaves seared three continents.
The COP27 summit will focus like never before on money – a major sticking point that has soured relations between countries that got rich burning fossil fuels and the poorer ones suffering from the worst consequences of climate change.
Developing nations have "high expectations" for the creation of a dedicated funding facility to cover "loss and damage", UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell said on Friday.
"The most vulnerable countries are tired, they are frustrated," Stiell said. "The time to have an open and honest discussion on loss and damage is now."
The United States and the European Union – fearful of creating an open-ended reparations framework – have dragged their feet and challenged the need for a separate funding stream.
UN chief António Guterres has called for a "historic pact" to bridge the North-South divide.
"Our planet is on course for reaching tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible and forever bake in catastrophic temperature rise," Guterres said recently.
"We need to move from tipping points to turning points for hope."