Delegates at COP27 (U.N. Climate Change Conference) drafted an outline for a loss and damage deal under which rich, developed nations would compensate developing countries for permanent and irreversible climate impacts. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is taking its first concrete steps to flesh out the agreement.

Loss and damage is the term used in U.N. climate talks to describe impacts that can’t be avoided by mitigation or disaster risk management, or addressed through adaptation.

Given the failure so far to curb greenhouse gas emissions, such loss and damage is already happening unavoidably in many places, says Farhana Sultana, professor of geography and the environment.

“When you can’t adapt to climate change at all and face interconnected issues surrounding loss and damage, the unbearable heaviness of climate coloniality is worsened,” she says. “This means destruction, devastation and loss are so profound that one can’t finance one’s way out of it.”

Read more in the Inside Climate News article, “A Long-Sought Loss and Damage Deal Was Finalized at COP27. Now, the Hard Work Begins.”