People's Daily Bell: Developed Countries Need to Face the Responsibility of Responding to Climate Change, Developing Countries | Global | Bell

Dealing with climate change is a common cause of humanity, and the international community should jointly promote the establishment of a fair and effective global mechanism to address climate change. On the issue of climate change, if one holds a utilitarian mindset and hopes to take more advantage and less responsibility, it will ultimately be detrimental to others rather than oneself

Recently, many parts of the world have been experiencing extreme weather. UN Secretary General Guterres warned, "If we continue to delay the key measures needed, I believe we will enter a catastrophic situation." However, developed countries have long failed to face their responsibilities and have delayed fulfilling their commitments, leading to the "destruction" of the current climate agenda and increasingly causing dissatisfaction from the international community, especially developing countries.

Developed countries bear historical, legal, and moral responsibilities in addressing climate change issues, while developing countries are the biggest victims of climate change. The latest research conducted by the University of Leeds and others in the UK, recently published in the journal Nature Sustainable Development, shows that about 90% of the world's excess carbon emissions come from developed countries such as the United States. However, developed countries only keep shouting slogans while shifting their responsibilities and obligations to developing countries. This completely violates the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities clearly stated in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Paris Agreement. Brazilian President Lula recently pointed out, "In the past 200 years, those who have truly polluted the Earth have been those who have carried out the industrial revolution, so they must repay the historic debts they owe to the Earth."

Developing countries have not seen enough sincerity from developed countries in addressing climate change. Climate financing is key to addressing climate change. According to the clear provisions of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Paris Agreement, developed countries have a clear responsibility and obligation to contribute, while developing countries voluntarily contribute. The latest research conducted by the University of Leeds and others in the UK shows that developed countries should pay a total of $17 trillion in compensation to low-carbon emitting countries to ensure that the related goals of addressing climate change can be achieved. Guterres said that by 2030, the funding needs of developing countries in addressing climate change will soar to $340 billion per year. Faced with such a large funding gap, developed countries have not even fulfilled their promise of providing $100 billion in climate funding annually to developing countries by 2020, which was made 14 years ago. The roadmap for doubling their promised global adaptation funding is still unclear. At the recently held New Global Financing Compact Summit, climate financing issues became the focus. Sultan, the incoming President of the United Nations Climate Change Dubai Conference, stated that there is a huge funding gap to jointly address climate change and promote sustainable development in the world. "It is impossible to solve problems that can only be solved through major surgeries with only bandaids and painkillers.".

In recent years, some developed countries have experienced a regression in their climate policies, with fossil energy consumption and carbon emissions increasing instead of decreasing, affecting the global climate governance process. The US government has repeatedly stated its commitment to "transparency," "responsibility," and "respect for international rules," but has consistently lacked a continuous, consistent, transparent, and responsible climate change response policy. It has even failed to ratify the Kyoto Protocol and withdrew from the Paris Agreement, becoming a disruptor of global climate governance. The United States also uses the excuse of promoting its own energy transformation to invest billions of dollars in high subsidies for its manufacturing industry through various unfair laws and administrative measures, while imposing trade barriers on other countries' green industries, cutting off the path for developing countries to obtain green technology. These actions blatantly violate WTO rules, disrupt global green industry and supply chains, undermine the efforts of countries to achieve sustainable development goals, and run counter to the collective efforts of the international community to address climate change.

China is a practitioner of ecological civilization and an activist in climate governance. China has announced the goal of peaking carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality, aiming to achieve the world's highest reduction in carbon emission intensity in the shortest time in global history. China is steadily promoting energy structure adjustment, with wind power, photovoltaic installed capacity, and power generation ranking first in the world, and the production and sales of new energy vehicles ranking first in the world. Bloomberg recently reported that China is becoming one of the leaders in terms of the speed of replacing fossil fuels with clean energy, which is the most important indicator for our climate future. China not only adheres to the path of green development, but also continues to deepen South South cooperation in addressing climate change. Under the framework of the green "the Belt and Road" and South South cooperation, China will do its best to provide support and assistance to other developing countries in addressing climate change.

Dealing with climate change is a common cause of humanity, and the international community should jointly promote the establishment of a fair and effective global mechanism to address climate change. On the issue of climate change, if one holds a utilitarian mindset and hopes to take more advantage and take less responsibility, it will ultimately be detrimental to others rather than oneself. Developed countries should face up to their historical responsibilities, fulfill their commitments as soon as possible, increase support for developing countries in terms of funding, technology, and capacity building, and work together with developing countries to achieve substantial progress in global climate governance.