BORIS Johnson has said Britain should shy away from loss and damage payments to the countries most affected by climate change. 

The comment could put him at odds with Rishi Sunak, who has expressed a reluctant willingness to discuss the issue which looks set to dominate COP27. 

While the ex-prime minister accepted Britain had pumped “an awful lot of carbon into the atmosphere” he said the country needed to focus on the future. 

Just as it was at the Glasgow conference last year, the debate over compensation, sometimes referred to as repatriations, looks set to be at the heart of talks over the next two weeks in Sharm el-Shiekh.

Though discussed on the margins on previous COPs, this year is the first time it will be on the official agenda. 

At last year’s event, almost all references to new financial support were removed in the final agreement, and instead, the Glasgow Dialogue was established, with the aim of making it a key part of this year’s event. 

However, with economies across the world battered by the impact of Russia’s war in Ukraine, there is a fear that richer nations - those responsible for the vast majority of greenhouse gases since the industrial age - will pull back from any meaningful commitment.

Last year, the Scottish Government committed £2m towards loss and damage, making it the first developed nation to pledge financial assistance. 

Since then Wallonia and Denmark have both promised financial assistance. 

Nicola Sturgeon - who is in Egypt for the summit - has said Scotland will make a further financial commitment to loss and damage tomorrow.

This new money will look "in particular at non-economic loss and damage that many countries are suffering."

"That would be a further very significant part of Scotland's determination to see real progress behind that issue that should have been dealt with many years ago," the First Minister told Sky News.

The announcement comes just days after deputy First Minster John Swinney confirmed £615m worth of spending cuts to offset the impact of Brexit, public sector pay deals and help for Ukrainian refugees.

Speaking at a New York Times event on the fringes of the summit, Mr Johnson said the “taxpayer in the developed world cannot do everything.”

He told delegates: “The best way to fix this is not to look backwards and to try to tot up some bill for loss and damage that the UK or other countries have done, but try to try to look at what the UK can do to help to take countries forward and help them achieve the carbon reductions and green technologies.”

He said the country simply did not have the money.

“Two hundred years ago, we started it all and there’s no question that per capita, people in the UK have put out an awful lot of carbon into the atmosphere. 

“But what we cannot do is, you know, make up for that with some kind of reparations. We simply do not have the financial resources — and no country could.”

“The whole concept is tough: who devises the reparations? Let’s look to the future,” he added.

Earlier today, Grant Shapps, the business secretary, said this morning that Britain was “supportive of discussions” about reparations. 

“We’re accepting the principle there’s a discussion to be had about this [at Cop27]. We industrialised first and we appreciate the rest of the world needs to be able to bring themselves along as well.”

However, a number of Tory MPs may have more sympathy with Mr Johnson. 

Yesterday, Labour’s shadow climate change secretary Ed Miliband committed his party to providing finance for loss and damage. 

“This is about global solidarity,” he told the BBC. “Yes we have some historical responsibility but this is about global solidarity and it's absolutely part of our aid commitment.”

The comments were seized upon by climate sceptic members of the Tory backbenches.  

Craig Mackinlay told the Daily Mail: “How on earth we could be held responsible for our past, which actually gave more technological advances to the world than any other country, I find somewhat laughable.”

The summit was opened by UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres who warned that the world is “on the highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator.”

Addressing world leaders at the start of the climate summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, he said “we are in the fight of our lives – and we are losing.”

He told presidents and prime ministers that can either "sign a climate solidarity pact, or a collective suicide pact."