From: Tsegai Emmanuel (emmanuelt40@gmail.com)
Date: Wed Dec 16 2009 - 21:46:39 EST
Does the US Owe a Climate Debt?
By Kate Sheppard <http://motherjones.com/authors/kate-sheppard> | Mon Dec.
14, 2009 12:01 AM PST
------------------------------
One of the most hotly contested issues at Copenhagen is the question of
what, if anything, the US and other industrialized countries owe the nations
least responsible for the accumulation of planet-warming gases in the
atmosphere.
The United States has said that over the next three years it will commit
$1.4 billion annually to a $10 billion short-term fund intended to help
developing nations cope with the effects of climate change. The European
Union volunteered last week to chip in $3
billion<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/12/science/earth/12climate.html?_r=2&hp>
[1].
But that still leaves the question of how much rich nations will pony up
over the long haul. The United Nations estimates that poor countries will
need as much as $170 billion per year to adapt to climate change—$50 billion
more than developed countries spent on aid in 2008. Other development groups
have estimated that this task could cost two to three
times<http://www.iied.org/climate-change/key-issues/economics-and-equity-adaptation/costs-adapting-climate-change-significantly-under-estimated>
[2] that much. So far, rich countries have indicated that they're only
prepared to offer around $100 billion <http://planetark.org/wen/53187> [3].
Developing nations, many of which are especially vulnerable to climate
change, have balked at the prospect that Copenhagen may not produce a
sizeable financial commitment from the countries that have contributed most
to the warming of the planet. Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Aping, the Sudanese
chairman of the Group of
77<http://motherjones.com/environment/2009/12/poor-countries-g77-suicide-pact-copenhagen>
[4], the bloc of least-developed nations, suggested on Thursday that an
appropriate fund should total around $200 billion. On Friday his estimate
had risen to $400 billion. Dessima Williams of Grenada, who chairs the
Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), has suggested a figure in the range
of 1.5 percent of the GDP of developed nations. "It must be responsive to
the damage that's already done," said Williams.
Whatever the number, the prevailing sentiment in the developing world is
that the United States and other big polluters must pay up. "It was not us
who put the waste in the atmosphere, but we are the first to suffer from
that," said Antonio Lima, a delegate from Cape Verde and the vice president
of AOSIS. "Those who put the waste in the atmosphere have to clean it." But
negotiators for the most vulnerable nations worry that the matter of climate
aid will not be adequately addressed. "We are afraid they are not going to
take care of us in this process," Lima said.
While the US has indicated that it will contribute money to help poor
nations deal with climate change, negotiators have categorically rejected
the idea of a climate "debt." "I actually completely reject the notion of a
debt or reparations or anything of the like," said US climate envoy Todd
Stern. "I mean, let’s just be mindful of the fact for most of the two
hundred years since the industrial revolution, people were blissfully
ignorant of the fact that emissions caused a greenhouse effect. This is a
relatively recent phenomenon, so I think that’s the wrong way to look at
this," he continued. "We absolutely recognize our historic role in putting
emissions in the atmosphere up there that are there now, but the sense of
guilt or culpability or reparations, I just categorically reject that."
And the dollar figure for climate financing isn't the only flashpoint.
Another sensitive subject is whether any of this money should go to China
and other rapidly developing economies. Last week Stern shot down that idea,
too. "I don't envision public funds—certainly not from the United
States—going to China," he said. His remark prompted some tough
talk<http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2009/12/china-us-smackdown-copenhagen>
[5] from Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei. "I don't want to say that
the gentleman is ignorant," he said—before adding that Stern "lacks common
sense" and is "extremely irresponsible."
So as the second week of talks begins, the message from developing nations
has become overwhelmingly clear: Show us the money.
------------------------------
*Source URL:*
http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2009/12/does-us-owe-climate-debt
*Links:*
[1]
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/12/science/earth/12climate.html?_r=2&hp
[2]
http://www.iied.org/climate-change/key-issues/economics-and-equity-adaptation/costs-adapting-climate-change-significantly-under-estimated
[3] http://planetark.org/wen/53187
[4]
http://motherjones.com/environment/2009/12/poor-countries-g77-suicide-pact-copenhagen
[5] http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2009/12/china-us-smackdown-copenhagen