Olive crops are dying in Egypt. Entire villages are leaving to escape rising seas. In Pakistan, floods this summer killed 1,700 people and left a third of the country underwater.
Developing countries face irreversible damage from climate change, but have done little to cause it. They want compensation from wealthier nations that have burned oil, gas and coal for decades and created pollution that is dangerously heating the planet.
The idea that if you harm another person's property, you owe them compensation is a common belief in many cultures.
It has been hard to apply that principle to climate change. Rich nations like the United States and European Union have opposed the idea of explicitly compensating poorer countries for climate disasters already underway.
The debate over loss and damage will be at the forefront of the United Nations climate talks. Pakistan, which is leading a group of 77 developing nations, wants it to be included on the formal agenda for the first time.
The issue is unavoidable this year, with leaders from nearly 200 nations gathering on the African continent, where millions are at risk of famine because of the heat. Researchers have been able to quantify the role global warming plays in disasters thanks to developments in science.
Pakistan's foreign minister said in September that the country's devastating floods were worsened by global warming. Thirty three million people in Pakistan pay in the form of their lives and livelihoods for the industrialization of larger countries.
A year ago, wealthy nations pledged to give 40 billion dollars a year by the year 2025. This is less than one-fifth of what developing nations need, according to a UN report. Loss and damage funding is needed to deal with the aftermath of climate disasters that nations can't protect themselves against.
John Kerry, President Biden's climate envoy, has agreed to discuss the idea of financing for loss and damage in order to avoid a fight over the summit's agenda.
Agreeing to a new fund is far different than that. The United States is behind on previous promises to help poorer countries shift to cleaner energy or build sea walls. Senate Democrats sought $3 billion in climate finance last year, but only got $1 billion. With Republicans poised to make gains in Tuesday's elections, the chances of new funds are dim.
The political foundation is not there and the United States has a moral responsibility to address loss and damage.
Europeans worry that if the U.S. president does not approve of the fund, they will be left with the bag.
Loss and damage are not abstract in Turkana, a region that is among the nation's most impoverished.
Scientists see a long-term drying trend as the region suffers its fourth straight year of extreme dry weather. Most ofTurkana's 900,000 people are pastoralists who make a living raising livestock and have watched herds die of lack of water. Half of the population is in dire need of food. Some herders have crossed into Uganda or South Sudan in order to find a better life.
Local officials have drawn up urgent plans to adapt, which include drilling more wells, building dams, and shifting people to more resilient forms of agriculture. Money is a problem. The full plan could cost $200 million a year, double the county's budget.
Turkana is at risk in the current crisis. Officials are having a hard time providing emergency food aid this year.
We need to focus on saving lives right now. We need to make people more resistant to climate shocks. We are working hard. We can't do everything with the money we have.
Extreme weather caused by global warming could be included in the definition of loss and damage by the UN. There were homes destroyed, roads destroyed, and an airport destroyed in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian. A quarter of the nation's economy was damaged.
In the case of salt farmers in Bangladesh who lose their jobs because of tidal surge and heavy rain, it is difficult to quantify, as are the communities in Micronesia that have watched ancient burial grounds fall into the ocean.
An adviser to the prime minister of Barbados said that if we had cut emissions early, we wouldn't have to adapt. We have to do all three because we didn't act early.
It is difficult to determine how much money loss and damage would be. A study said developing countries could suffer between $290 billion to $580 billion in annual climate damages by 2030. It could go up to $1.7 trillion by the end of the century.
Wealthy countries used to suggest that disasters could be alleviated by existing aid or insurance.
Developing countries don't think that's right. Over half of the UN's appeals are for donations after weather disasters. Insurance won't work for homes that are going to be swallowed by the sea. Poorer countries have had to take on debt to rebuild.
Lia Nicholson, a senior adviser for the Alliance of Small Island States, said that climate impacts will force island nations into unsustainable debt, arresting development and holding them hostage to random acts of charity.
Loss and damage in Egypt are likely to be difficult to discuss.
The US is concerned that a new fund could be unwieldy.
China, currently the world's largest emitter, as well as fossil fuel exporting countries like Saudi Arabia, should contribute, according to some rich countries. Those countries have not traditionally been responsible for climate aid.
Developing countries and activists view loss and damage as a matter of justice while wealthy nations don't want to accept responsibility.
Mr. Kerry said that the US bears responsibility for climate change because it has burned coal for electricity for over a century. When governments agreed that carbon dioxide emissions from oil, gas and coal were warming the planet, emerging nations were burning fossil fuels as well.
"If you want to measure from there, at the rate we're going, a couple of countries have the ability to eclipse our historical emissions" We did this by burning coal. Guess who else was burning coal? All of those other countries. Are they no longer guilty?
If nations agree to create a loss and damage fund, they will have to deal with difficult issues, such as who deserves help and how much. Money can be spent to benefit people who need it.
The president of the Global Initiative for Food Security is David Michael Terungwa. More than 100,000 people were displaced and 140,000 hectares of farmland was destroyed by floods in Benue state.
Mr. Terungwa talked to a man who lost his chickens in the floods. He could start a business if there was climate insurance. The local farmers are what I think of when we talk about loss and damage.
He is worried that the money will be used to rebuild in vulnerable areas that will be washed away in future disasters.
Developing countries don't believe in questions like these. The first thing to do is agree that loss and damage funding is necessary.
The losses are not going away.
A professor at Cairo University who owns an olive grove outside the city said he has sunk into depression because of the heat waves. Most of his olives were rejected in the market.
He said that climate change won't happen in the future. The thing is hitting us.
Restitution would help, but that is not the whole problem.
He asked, "You can give money, but what about the olives?" The trees need to be saved.
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