Leaders of high-emitting countries, including the US, Canada, UK, and now China, are particularly responsible for climate change, and must change course if we are to avoid the worst and address the disparity and unevenness evident in current climate policy.

Thankfully, via the Paris Agreement, many countries have pledged and released finances to support climate mitigation (preventing and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and transitioning to renewable energy) and climate adaptation (actions needed to adapt to current and expected climate impacts and reduce their harm). 

There is now regular monitoring of the progress of these payments, checks on how commitments are being upheld and tracking of what outcomes are being achieved — and these are positive steps. 

However, high-emitting countries failed to reach the pledged target of giving $100bn a year to developing countries by 2020.

Damage already done

Unfortunately, in many cases the damage has already been done. In increasing numbers of places, adaptation is no longer possible — for instance, where displacement, ecosystem damage and loss of homeland to sea-level rise has already occurred. 

This is “loss and damage” in real time. For three decades, small island states and vulnerable countries have campaigned for recognition of loss and damage in international negotiations, to no avail. 

Millions of people’s futures hinge on initiatives such as the UN’s transition committee on loss and damage, aiming to channel climate finance to the most-affected regions. However, the committee failed to reach an agreement ahead of Cop28.

Former first minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon was an early champion of loss and damage measures from rich countries at Cop26 and Cop27. 

While pledging £2m initially, and then another £5m, she urged powerful industrialised countries to commit to meeting the gap in financing for meaningful climate justice. Scotland was also one of the first countries to talk about climate reparations, recognising that historical accountability was important.

Unfortunately, the US and the UK, among others, have categorically ruled out climate reparations. Whether this is out of concern about the phrasing of their accountability, and the possibility that they could be vulnerable to litigation, remains unclear. 

Abdication of responsibility

The US in particular disagreeing to pay climate reparations, despite being the largest greenhouse gas polluter cumulatively, and thereby the biggest climate change contributor historically, is a blatant abdication of responsibility. The same can be said of other colonial and imperial powers in Europe. 

Increasingly, attention is being placed on China and its growing emissions of recent years — but we must not forget our history.

Without doubt, beyond any commitments made at Cop28, the need for greater corporate accountability and local action remain critical. The fossil fuel industry continues to produce, maintain and benefit from greenhouse gas emissions, and must fundamentally change its business model. 

Meanwhile, greater efforts by local governments, civic groups and nonprofits remain crucial to tackling ongoing and increasing climate injustices on the ground.

Climate accountability is a shared duty. It’s an intricate web of actions, decisions and commitments. Rather than a buzzword, it’s the bedrock of our fight against the climate crisis.

As the world prepares for Cop28, the onus is on global leaders, corporations and individuals to rise to the occasion and champion the cause of climate justice. 

Wealthy nations must start putting real funding towards loss and damage, while ramping up their mitigation and adaptation efforts, and reining in the influence of the fossil fuel industry in climate policies.

The future of our planet depends on it.

• Farhana Sultana is a professor at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University in New York 
• Saleemul Huq was the director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development at the Independent University, Bangladesh. Prof Saleemul Huq died on October 28, in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He was 71. This is his final piece of writing