Climate compensation! "This is what the United States owes to the rest of the world"

On the 4th local time, the first African Climate Summit jointly organized by the African Union and the Kenyan government opened in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.

The three-day summit, themed "Promoting Green Growth and Providing Climate Financing Solutions for Africa and the World," aims to seek effective paths for Africa to independently develop detailed plans to address climate challenges and achieve sustainable development.

△ Logo of the African Climate Summit

To achieve these goals, "money" is undoubtedly the most important.

As Stephen Jackson, the United Nations Coordinator in Kenya, said, this African Climate Summit is a "financing summit" in many ways.

He emphasized that Africa has the lowest carbon emissions but is at the forefront of the climate crisis, and addressing the climate crisis must start from Africa. To this end, developed countries should fulfill their commitments, not only take their own emission reduction issues seriously, but also provide climate adaptation funds and compensation for losses and damages to African countries.

△ Screenshot of the United Nations official website report

However, similar calls have been made countless times and have yet to awaken Western politicians who pretend to sleep.

"This little money is an insult to developing countries"

According to a research report previously published by British media, about 90% of global excess carbon emissions come from developed countries such as the United States, and any further emissions from these countries will occupy a "fair share" of other countries.

The report suggests that to ensure the achievement of climate change targets, developed countries should pay a total of $170 trillion in compensation to low emission countries, with the United States alone needing to pay $80 trillion.

Screenshot of a report from the UK journal Nature Sustainable Development

The researchers also pointed out that this compensation amount only involves compensation for the fair share of carbon emissions occupied by low emission countries, and does not include the climate assistance that developed countries should have provided to developing countries.

When it comes to the latter part of the expenses that should have been provided, developed countries such as the United States promised to provide at least $100 billion in climate aid to developing countries annually before 2020 at the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Conference. But the promise was never fully fulfilled, and even the deadline for funding was postponed to 2023.

Among them, the United States is leading the way in breaking promises.

According to data released by the UK Energy Research Institute, based on historical carbon emission shares, the United States should provide $39.9 billion in climate aid funding annually. However, in 2020, it only provided $7.6 billion, accounting for only 19% of the share that should be shared, making it the least contribution among the 23 relevant developed countries.

△ Screenshot of the UK Energy Research Institute's Carbon Briefing website

With extreme weather sweeping the world and climate disasters becoming increasingly severe in recent years, many countries in Africa have been severely impacted.

The latest issue from the World Economic Forum warns that climate change has had significant impacts on African ecosystems, economy, and society. Since the beginning of this year alone, 1.8 million people in Africa have been displaced due to long-term drought.

Screenshot of World Economic Forum website report

Multiple studies have shown that by 2030, developing countries will need $340 billion to $2 trillion annually in funding to address the impacts of climate change. The international community continues to urge developed countries with the highest historical debt on climate issues to take responsibility and help developing countries such as Africa increase climate financing.

The Biden administration, which took office in 2021, has pledged to provide $11.4 billion in climate aid annually to developing countries in order to make a comeback to the Paris Agreement. However, in reality, the US Congress allocated less than $1 billion in related funding for the following two fiscal years.

In the view of Salem Huck, director of the International Center for Climate Change and Development, this amount of money is "really an insult to developing countries".

Screenshots of a report by The Guardian in the UK

With the solidarity and efforts of developing countries, the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, held in Egypt in November last year, passed a resolution for the first time, calling on developed countries to establish a "loss and damage" fund to compensate for the catastrophic consequences of their historical emissions on developing countries.

This breakthrough is widely regarded as a crucial step towards "climate justice".

However, due to the United States taking the lead in evading, the resolution did not make provisions on key issues such as how the fund operates and which countries should contribute. The credibility of developed countries has also become an unknown factor in whether the fund can be implemented.

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change website

"The United States owes climate compensation to other countries around the world"

From severe shrinkage to mere rhetoric, the US government's repeated "climate commitments" have become the laughing stock of the world.

At the Fifth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries held in March this year, UN Secretary General Guterres once again urged the United States and the West to fulfill their aid commitments.

At the same time, he strongly criticized the global financial system dominated by developed countries for only focusing on their own interests, not only failing to promote the development of the least developed countries, but also pushing them into a debt vortex through predatory borrowing costs.

UN official website: Guterres pointed out that the global financial system is designed and led by developed Western countries, "which is largely beneficial to themselves.".

According to figures provided by the World Economic Forum, Africa's share of global debt has increased from approximately 19% in 2010 to nearly 29% in 2022.

"Countries are being forced to allocate a larger proportion of their government budgets to debt repayment, sacrificing funding for development and climate resilience building."

Screenshot of World Economic Forum website report

Nevertheless, Western creditors still lack any mercy.

According to a report released by the international charity organization Oxfam on the eve of the G7 summit in May this year, the G7 not only has about $13 trillion in development and climate aid yet to be delivered, but it has also demanded that southern countries around the world repay $232 million in debt daily by 2028.

△ Screenshot of Oxfam's official website

At the New Global Financing Compact Summit held in June this year, issues such as climate financing, developing country debt, and multilateral financial institution reform continued to be the focus of discussion.

However, in sharp contrast to developing countries actively participating in domestic affairs meetings, most Western leaders led by the United States chose to be absent collectively.

In response, South African President Ramaphosa angrily accused Western countries of never extending a helping hand when Africa needs it the most, saying, "We are not beggars, we just hope to be treated equally.".

Screenshot of South Africa's "News 24" website report

On one hand, developing countries urgently need assistance, and on the other hand, developed countries are acting slowly. In this difficult contradiction, the United States, as the leader of the West, undoubtedly carries a bad head.

And solid evidence suggests that the Biden administration and Democrats, who are doing everything they can to compete in next year's election, do not want to pretend about climate issues anymore.

At the July congressional hearing, the US President's climate envoy John Kerry, who was questioned, publicly refused to provide compensation funds to developing countries severely affected by climate disasters in order to cater to Republicans - "the US will not give money, under any circumstances.".

Screenshots of reports on the website of Consumer and Business Channel in the United States

In response, American journalist, columnist, and political commentator Bradley Blankenship pointed out in an article titled "The United States owes climate reparations to the rest of the world" that the United States is the country with the highest greenhouse gas emissions in global history. This fact itself indicates that the United States bears an unparalleled responsibility towards poor countries. However, for political reasons, Kerry claimed that the United States would not compensate the poorest countries most severely affected by climate change "under any circumstances", which is "completely dirty and despicable".

Screenshot of the report on the website of "Russia Today" television station

Source: Global Information Radio's "Global Deep Observation"

Planning | Wang Jian

Reporter | Li Yan

Editor | Yang Nan

Signature and Review | Wang Jian

Producer | Guan Juanjuan