In the Climate Summit held in Glasgow, Scotland in October-November, 2021, there was a debate on how the world’s wealthiest nations were disproportionately responsible for climate change and therefore they should compensate poorer nations for the damages caused by global warming.
Developed countries, including the US, Germany, UK, France, Canada, Japan, and much of Western Europe, account for only about 12 per cent of the world population but are responsible for more 50 per cent of CO2 emissions. Over the past 170 years, they have been contributing to global warming through green house gases, released from fossil fuels and industries.
The temperature of Earth has risen up by about 1.1 °C. This has led to severe heat waves, floods, droughts, and wildfires all over the world. Poorer countries are vulnerable to these hazards and they have sought help from richer nations to provide financial support to overcome these hazards. Least developed countries, like Bhutan, which hardly contribute to CO2 emissions as it absorbs more carbon dioxide from its vast forests than the emissions, have to bear the brunt. The country is facing severe risks from rising temperatures, flash floods, and landslides. However, countries like Bhutan do not get adequate aid to meet the consequences of global warming.
In 2010, the world’s wealthiest countries had pledged to mobilise $100 billion per year in climate finance for poorer countries by 2020. However, only very little aid has so far gone towards measures to help poorer countries cope with the hazards associated with a hotter planet, like sea walls or early warning systems for floods and droughts. So, those countries, many of which hardly produce any emissions, have asked for a separate fund to meet their damages. This fund has to be paid for by the wealthy countries to compensate the poor countries for the damages they cannot prevent. The issue is referred to as (loss and damage) policy debate of the UNFCC.
But wealthy countries have historically resisted calls for a specific funding mechanism for loss and damage. This is because they fear that it could result in liability claims by poorer countries.
Some of the world’s biggest developing economies are beginning to catch up on emissions. China has 18 per cent of the world’s population, and is responsible for almost 14 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions released from fossil fuels and industry since 1850. As per 2020 data, China is the world’s largest emitter of CO2 and accounts for roughly 31 per cent of humanity’s carbon dioxide from energy and industry.
Even though China has endorsed the vulnerable nations’ call for loss and damage financing at the UN Climate Summit in Glasgow, so far has not been asked to contribute to such a fund. Only the developed nations listed in the UN ‘Annex II’ have been asked to take the responsibility of funding for loss and damage finance.
At present, in terms of emissions per person, moderately big emitters such as Saudi Arabia, Australia and Canada are much higher than a county like India. India has produced about 7 per cent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions this year. This is almost equal to European Union and about half of the US. However, as far as the per capita emissions are concerned, India’s emissions are far lower. India has far more people than both the US and European Union combined and is much poorer with millions of people lacking reliable access to electricity.
At the UN Climate Summit in Glasgow, both the US and the European Union have argued that global warming hazards could not be minimised unless swiftly industrialising countries like India take precautions to cut on their emissions. India has announced its pledge to reach ‘net zero’ emissions by 2070 but it needs a lot more financial help to shift from coal to cleaner energy.
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