Months after COP27 ended with the creation of a loss and damage fund, rich countries including the U.S. are failing to contribute. “Money … It’s what we need,” U.S. climate envoy John Kerry told the Washington Post. Kerry blamed international development banks for not prioritizing global development over their financial ratings. Kerry said he and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had met with several of the development banks, including the World Bank, to urge “major reform.” He also said the U.S. would likely be unable to contribute more, “given the makeup of Congress.”

Kerry said that while the U.S. would not compensate countries for the damages caused by America’s climate pollution, he did note that the U.S. does frequently assist after emergency crises. Malik Amin Aslam Khan, the former Pakistan minister of state for environment, warned without developed countries being held accountable for their emissions, “the risk is that [the loss and damage fund] shall remain a ‘placebo’ fund without any sustainable funding source.” He added, “The inconvenient truth about using multilateral institutions is that it quickly transforms into a route to repackage existing funding pipelines or to use the term ‘serving old wine in new bottles.’” (Washington Post $)