New U.S. message on climate change: Make China pay
07 Nov 2022
The U.S. is softening
its resistance to paying developing countries for loss and damages suffered
from climate change, and it's pointing the finger at China's massive emissions
as well.
Smoke and steam rise from a coal
processing plant in Hejin in central China's Shanxi Province in 2019. | Sam
McNeil/AP Photo
The U.S. is suddenly open to
making rich nations pay reparations to countries suffering the ravages of
climate change — but only if China ponies up, too.
The
about-face comes after years of Washington serving as the bulwark of wealthy
countries’ resistance to making such payments, and would set up China as the
new climate bogeyman. It would also challenge Beijing’s assertion that China
should still be seen as a developing nation.
Paying developing nations that suffer from climate-driven disasters and rising
temperatures is one of the most contentious issues in global climate
negotiations, which resume this weekend at a major conference in Sharm
El-Sheikh, Egypt.
The issue, referred to as “loss and damage” in the parlance of the global talks, calls for the U.S. and Europe’s industrialized nations to send funding to less-developed countries that have suffered from floods, heatwaves, droughts, rising seas and other disasters worsened by the changing climate. Those nations have contributed little to the crisis — in contrast to the United States, wich during the past two centuries has pumped more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than any other country.
After years of obstruction on the issue, a successful U.S.
rehabilitation of its reputation on the issue won’t be easy. Carbon dioxide
builds up in the atmosphere for centuries, meaning historical emissions
accurately reflect the blame for extreme weather events today. According to data from 2019,
the U.S., EU and U.K. are together responsible for more than half of the excess
CO2 in the atmosphere. China’s contribution was 12.7 percent and growing. U.S.
and European greenhouse gas emissions are trending lower, while China has
pledged only that its emissions will cease rising by the end of the decade.
Vulnerable countries and the Egyptian hosts of the 13-day U.N.
climate conference have made access to climate compensation a central theme of
the two-week gathering.