CarbonBrief data reveals that great powers barely contributed “fair” amounts in terms of historical carbon footprints.
Nearly 200 countries are meeting in Egypt for a climate summit in an effort to agree on policies to reduce the climate crisis. A central issue appears on the negotiation agenda: reducing the emissions gap between rich and poor countries.
The G20 alone is responsible for 75% of the greenhouse gases sent into the atmosphere, meanwhile, developing countries are seeing their economies weaken and are demanding funding to adapt to global warming. It’s not a new issue, in 2009 rich countries agreed to allocate at least 100,000 million in a fund to adapt to the most vulnerable regions before 2020, but that money never came.
Of the agreed amount, only 82 billion were sent, and now the delegations of the least developed countries are calling for solidarity. Not only was money far from the goal, but the contributions of nations were far from reality. This was revealed by data published by CarbonBrief, a portal that compares historical carbon dioxide emissions by country with contributions to funding made in recent years. The conclusions are not surprising: the major polluters have not put their money into the historical warmers of the planet.
The United States is, by far, the main culprit for the climate crisis, and so far, 20% of greenhouse gases are accumulating in the atmosphere and accelerating global warming. All this contrasts with the money it has contributed to the Green Fund, it only contributed $7,600 million to the fund in 2020, the deadline set by the United Nations. Americans would have had to put at least $32.3 billion into this fund to ensure their contributions were adjusted for their reality as a super polluter, according to analysis by CarbonBrief experts using data from the United Nations, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Resources Institute and Oxfam.
The Climate Summit will attempt to address the financing problems of rich countries, those that have contributed the most to the climate crisis, so that vulnerable countries can adapt their economies to a warming planet.
The second country to contribute the most to global warming will be China, followed by Russia, but the published analysis focuses only on the list of developed countries that, in accordance with commitments adopted under the United Nations, committed themselves at COP3 to providing funds to developing countries to adapt their economies to the climate crisis.
is followed by the United States and Canada, which should not have contributed more than 3,300 million; Australia, with 1,700 million funded less than its emissions-adjusted contribution; UK, which was 1,400 million away from compliance; Greece, with $300 million not included; New Zealand and Portugal, which should have added $100 million each to their contribution to align it with their historical carbon footprint.
Against this, there is also an extensive list of industrial powers that have not only allocated sufficient funding for the global accounting of greenhouse gas emissions, but also far exceeded the money that should have been added to the fund in 2020. This is the case of Switzerland, whose contribution is 436% more than what could be called its fair share. The same is happening with Norway, France, the Netherlands, Japan or Denmark, with money exceeding 200% which corresponds to the total amount of carbon dioxide emitted. Spain is on the same list, and has contributed an additional $100 million, which is 108% more than its fair share.
The graph shows the money that developed countries should have allocated to the Green Adaptation Fund in proportion to their historical emissions. On the left, the remaining amount in billions to be contributed. On the right, the amount that countries contributed the most.
Despite this, the Green Fund did not reach the 100,000 million target for 2020, and the countries decided to continue negotiating to raise the numbers before 2025, which will be key at the Climate Summit (COP27) in Sharm El Sheikh. However, the data does not reveal significant changes. Joe Biden promised to raise his funding to the figure of 11,000 million dollars, which is not commensurate with the historical contribution of the United States to global warming. A sum of money, moreover, came to nothing because Congress in March only authorized $1,000 million for climate change adaptation in developing countries, data from The New York Times says.
In red, countries that have been far from aligning their historical carbon footprint with the financial contribution to developing countries’ adaptation to climate change. In blue, countries that have met or exceeded the funding provided for their emissions data.
Data published by CarbonBrief reveals this as well Most of the financial contributions from developed countries are not distributed as aid or subsidies, but in the form of loans. In fact, the three countries that have provided the most funds to the Adaptation Fund in connection with their historical emissions, namely Japan, France and Germany, are, oddly enough, the ones that have financed these issues the most in the form of loans to developing countries. a) yes, Credits account for 86% of Japanese funds, 75% of French funds, and 45% of German funds.
In the case of Spain—which announced at this COP25 that it would raise an additional 20 million for adaptation and another three million for the Santiago Loss and Damage Network—only 2% of its climate money was released to developing countries in the form of loans.
(taken from general)
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