What Will We Do When They Want Us to Pay For What We Have Done?

 

The climate emergency has hit even the affluent nations hard but that doesn't compare to what has befallen the ultimate victims of two centuries of industrialization, the Third World.

The weakest and poorest are also the most vulnerable to the consequences of a fossil energy economy that almost exclusively benefited the western countries, the richest and most powerful.

So now, as our prime minister pushes through an expanded pipeline system to flood world markets with low-value, high-carbon bitumen, what does Justin Trudeau have in mind to deal with the collateral damage? We're Canadians after all. We are a highly principled nation, a best friend to the less fortunate. Right?

At the United Nations' global climate talks in Glasgow in November, developing countries fought hard for a dedicated loss and damage funding facility, a formal body set up under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to provide new financial support to affected nations. But the final Glasgow climate pact made no reference to climate finance to address the rising costs of losses and damages in developing countries. Instead, rich nations said they would establish "a dialogue" to discuss "arrangements for the funding of activities to avert, minimise and address loss and damage".

Rich nations, who typically have the largest historic emissions, are concerned that they could be held liable for the decades of pollution they have caused. When loss and damage was included in the Paris Agreement in 2015, the US pushed for a clause to be added which stated that the accord "does not involve or provide a basis for any liability or compensation".

The liability and compensation debate has made loss and damage "a political taboo" and stalled negotiations, says Thomas.

Despite signing up to a “high ambition coalition” with small island states and vulnerable nations at the November climate talks in Glasgow, the US and EU blocked their proposal for a loss and damage funding facility. When asked why the US opposed establishing such a facility, Washington's special climate envoy John Kerry told reporters: "We remain always thoughtful about the issue of liability and where this goes."

At the UN climate talks in November, Scotland became the first country in the world to set aside specific funding for loss and damage, pledging £2m ($2.7m) to help communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis. Although a small amount, the pledge was considered highly symbolic. But other countries resisted opening up a new channel of climate finance.

Third World delegates estimate they will need around $300 billion a year, every year, ad infinitum (or until climate change is brought under control, essentially the same thing) from the developed nations. Yet the west has been long on vague promises full of weasel words and very short on delivery.  In these circumstances, Trudeau's pipeline is rubbing salt into open wounds.