• The loss and damage mechanism requires industrialised countries, which bear the greatest responsibility for global warming, to financially compensate those that suffer its impact.
• Malawi and Scotland have agreed on a partnership of this kind.
• The British nation has allocated more than eight million euros to rebuild Malawi's territory, which has been struck by cyclones and floods.

Malawi is a state in south-eastern Africa, small relative to the vastness of the continent, yet rich in history and natural resources of inestimable value. To name just a few, within its borders it is home to the mountainous landscapes of the Rift Valley and the enormous Lake Malawi, which it shares, in a small part, with Mozambique. A politically stable country, it has been a democracy since 1994, the year in which the first democratic elections were held following the end of the dictatorship of Hastings Banda, who "reigned" for almost thirty years.

Having experienced a series of extreme events, such as floods and inundations, the African country asked Scotland for help with reconstruction and post-emergency management, and received it. Malawi and Scotland have thus set an example for the rest of the world of how the loss and damage mechanism should work — that is, the reparation of losses and damages suffered by the countries most vulnerable to the climate crisis, caused by those that are, conversely, most historically responsible for greenhouse gas emissions.

Which countries bear the greatest responsibility for climate change

The global warming we are experiencing and enduring today is the result of human activities, of greenhouse gas emissions that have been produced and that we continue to produce in large quantities by burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas. Not all countries, however, are equally responsible for emissions. From the Industrial Revolution to 2017, the United States alone poured 400 billion tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere, accounting for 25 per cent of all the emissions produced worldwide throughout history. The European Union and the United Kingdom stand at just above twenty per cent of the total.

It is therefore correct to say that Malawi and many other African countries are suffering serious damage for something they are not responsible for: Africa, as a continent, has caused only three per cent of historical emissions. Since 1991, however, the number of extreme climate events striking the global south each year has more than doubled, causing nearly 700,000 deaths. If one also counts the people who have suffered damage to their homes or have seen their livelihoods compromised, the figure reaches 189 million people every year, 97 per cent of the total number of people affected worldwide. In short, it is clear that there is no form of balance between those who have caused the climate crisis and those who suffer it.

Scotland and Malawi put loss and damage to the test

Back to Malawi. Between 2015 and 2016 the country went through a period of famine caused by heatwaves and drought that devastated agriculture and, with it, an economy based on what the land provides. Shortly afterwards, part of the territory — the village of Mambundungu — was submerged by floods that forced the inhabitants of several villages to migrate and rebuild their homes in places considered safer because they sit higher above the course of the rivers. In 2022 Malawi was once again struck by floods caused by tropical cyclones Ana and Gombe, between January and March, which inundated those same villages and reduced harvests by 20 per cent compared to the previous year. By the time the emergency was over, one million people had been affected by these extreme events, while a further 200,000 had become internally displaced.

And this is where the story of reparation, recovery and resilience begins. Also in light of a colonial bond, Malawi asked Scotland not to miss the opportunity to "look good" as the host nation of Cop26 and to become the first country to pledge funds for the loss and damage mechanism. This expression refers to the transfer of financial resources from industrialised countries to developing ones — reparation for damage that has already occurred as a result of the climate crisis or that will inevitably occur in the future. Scotland, led by (then almost outgoing) First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, first allocated two million pounds, then pledged a further five million (5.7 million euros) during the subsequent climate conference, the now well-known Cop27 in Sharm el-Sheikh.

What the money has been used for

In the regions worst affected by the floods, the money has been used to rebuild riverbanks such as those of the Phalombe, which was turned, against its nature, into a vector of destruction by the flooding. It burst its banks at ten points along its course. The same works are under way in the village of Mambundungu, where new embankments and flood barriers are being built; this is the second time the village has been relocated and rebuilt because of torrential rains. Finally, part of the funds have been used to rebuild schools that were destroyed, in particular in the village of Ngabu. There, the nursery school had been converted into a shelter from the rains, only to be partly destroyed itself in the process.

Demonstrating that extreme weather events are no unfortunate coincidence, in 2023 Malawi was also struck by Cyclone Freddy, with a toll of around five hundred deaths. Figures like these make it clear how much structural support is needed — support capable of going far beyond the emergency itself.

Why Malawi and Scotland in particular?

The bond between the two countries dates back to the colonial era, when two Scottish churches decided to send religious missions to the territory of present-day Malawi, which was at the time subjugated by the British Empire. And this should prompt us to reflect on how climate justice intersects with social justice. And on how the countries of the global north (global north) are, in a sense, doubly indebted to those of the global south (global south): for what they did directly to peoples and territories by colonising them and plundering their resources, and for what they continue to do indirectly by burning fossil fuels.