• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Saturday, February 4, 2023
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Environment

US, EU ‘Owe Half The Cost’ of Repairing Climate Damage

Staff Writer by Staff Writer
11/25/19
in Environment, Featured, World
US President Donald Trump and President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker at a G20 economic summit on July 8, 2017 in Hamburg, Germany.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker will visit the White House on July 25. The stakes are high. Photo: Sean Gallup, Getty Images

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

The United States and Europe bear more than half the cost of repairing the damage already wrought by climate change, a coalition of environmental groups said Monday.

Based on their historic greenhouse gas emissions, the U.S. and E.U. should be held jointly responsible for 54 percent of funding owed to developing nations already dealing with extreme flooding, droughts and mega-storms rendered more frequent and intense by global warming, the groups said.

A week ahead of a U.N. climate summit in Madrid, in which the controversial issue of how funding for the so-called “loss and damage” inflicted by climate change will be provided, they said the amount needed would hit $300 billion annually within a decade.

The U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, under which the 2015 Paris agreement was signed, is based on the principle that all countries must give at least their fair share in global efforts to mitigate and adapt to our changing climate.

These “common but differentiated responsibilities” are the bedrock of ongoing international negotiations on how countries can limit global warming to the Paris target of “well below” two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) from pre-industrial temperatures.

But as climate change outpaces efforts to tame it, poorer nations, historically virtually blameless for manmade emissions, are pleading for richer countries to compensate them for the natural disasters hitting their shores right now.

Negotiators at the COP25 in Madrid are tasked with fleshing out an international mechanism guiding how countries finance loss and damage reparations.

A collection of nearly 100 environmental groups said countries must agree on a financing facility whereby richer nations, those mainly responsible for emissions, help countries recover from climate-related catastrophes.

They called for $50 billion by 2022, rising to $300 billion annually to help at-risk nations by 2030.

“This is a crucial opportunity for the rich countries and polluting industries that have caused the crisis to meet their responsibility to those who are being hardest hit by climate disasters,” said Harjeet Singh, global lead on climate change for ActionAid.

‘Emergency Now’

The groups analyzed each nation’s ability to finance climate action, and compared that to its historic emissions, dating back to 1950.

It found that the U.S., the largest polluter in history, should contribute at least 30.4 percent of loss and damage funding.

The E.U. should pay 24 percent, they said, while China, the largest current emitter, was obliged to fund 10.4 percent.

Going further back to the start of the industrial age, the analysis found that the U.S.’s fair damage funding share would be over 40 percent.

Developing nations are both most at risk of climate-related disasters and least prepared to tackle them.

Damage continues after Cyclone Kenneth in Mozambique pic.twitter.com/7M7wXhOpki

— CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) May 2, 2019

This double threat was borne out this year in Mozambique, when two deadly cyclones battered its coast.

The storms displaced millions, destroyed homes and crops, inflicting an estimated $3 billion in damages – roughly 20 percent of the country’s GDP.

But without a global, unified process for climate damage funding, countries are not yet obliged to get their checkbooks out.

After Cyclone Idai, the International Monetary Fund provided Mozambique with an emergency load of $118 million, woefully short of what was needed.

The groups highlighted the basic inequality inherent in manmade climate change: the world’s richest 10 percent cause 50 percent of emissions, while the world’s poorest 50 percent cause 10 percent.

“We can no longer pretend that the climate emergency is something for the future,” said Alison Doig, head of global policy at Christian Aid.

“Poor and vulnerable people are losing their homes, livelihoods, and loved ones right now.”


More on the Subject

Troubled Waters: How Climate Change is Straining US Fisheries

ShareTweet
Staff Writer

Staff Writer

AFP with The Globe Post

Related Posts

Protesters rally against the fatal police assault of Tyre Nichols, outside of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center in Detroit, Michigan, on January 27, 2023
Opinion

How Do Violent ‘Monsters’ Take Root?

by Matthew J. Mayer
February 3, 2023
George Santos from the 3rd Congressional district of New York
Opinion

George Santos for Speaker!

by Stephen J. Lyons
January 16, 2023
People cool off with a fountain's water during a heat wave in Seville, Spain
Environment

UN Confirms 2022 Among Eight Hottest Years on Record

by Staff Writer
January 13, 2023
Top view of the US House of Representatives
National

Chaos as US House Adjourns Without Choosing Speaker

by Staff Writer
January 4, 2023
Commuters waiting for buses in Metro Manila. Philippines
Opinion

Eight Billion and Counting…

by Stephen J. Lyons
November 29, 2022
Mario Draghi
Business

EU Leaders Clash Over How to Tackle Energy Prices

by Staff Writer
October 20, 2022
Next Post
Lebanon Reopens But Crisis Remains After PM Resigns

Lebanon Protesters Defiant Despite Hezbollah Attack

Rohingya refugees wait for food distribution organized by the Bangladesh army at the refugee camp of Balukhali near Gumdhum

Can the International Community Save the Rohingya?

Recommended

Protesters rally against the fatal police assault of Tyre Nichols, outside of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center in Detroit, Michigan, on January 27, 2023

How Do Violent ‘Monsters’ Take Root?

February 3, 2023
A supporter of nurses' strike and NHS holds a placard

UK Faces Fresh Mass Strikes as Wage Talks Derail

February 1, 2023
Israeli security forces in Jerusalem

Palestinian Gunman Kills 7 in East Jerusalem Synagogue Attack

January 30, 2023
The Doomsday Clock reads 100 seconds to midnight, a decision made by The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, during an announcement at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on January 23, 2020

‘Doomsday Clock’ Moves Closest Ever to Midnight

January 25, 2023
Police work near the scene of a mass shooting in Monterey Park, California

California Lunar New Year Mass Shooter Dead, Motive Unclear: Police

January 23, 2023
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern

Race on To Replace Ardern as New Zealand Prime Minister

January 20, 2023

Opinion

Protesters rally against the fatal police assault of Tyre Nichols, outside of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center in Detroit, Michigan, on January 27, 2023

How Do Violent ‘Monsters’ Take Root?

February 3, 2023
George Santos from the 3rd Congressional district of New York

George Santos for Speaker!

January 16, 2023
Commuters waiting for buses in Metro Manila. Philippines

Eight Billion and Counting…

November 29, 2022
Mahsa Amini protests

Imagining a Free Iran

October 24, 2022
Vladimir Putin

How 18th Century International Law Clarifies the Situation in Ukraine

September 29, 2022
Vladimir Putin

Falling for Putin

September 15, 2022
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post