United States owes millions of dollars to developing countries in climate funding. The war in Ukraine delays payments and slows down U.S. progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This has made leaders of low-lying, less wealthy countries feel frustrated and forgotten.
“Effectively the U.S. owes all of the rest a climate credit that must be paid,” said Mohamed Adow, leader of PowerShift Africa. This coalition advocates for climate policies across Africa. “Our continent is on the frontline, and we are paying the costs [of] these climate pollutants.”
The United States promised in 2021 to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and to send money long overdue to developing countries to assist them with transitioning to cleaner energy. It also promised to protect people from rising seas and heat waves and other climate-related hazards.
According to economists and scientists, it is still possible to prevent global temperatures from rising in a catastrophic way and to prevent millions of deaths.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine could mean that many U.S. commitments are put on hold. The United States has yet to pass major climate legislation, months after it renewed its pledges at the international conference on climate in Glasgow. To meet rising energy prices, the Biden administration has relaxed restrictions on domestic oil-and gas drilling. Congress did not allocate more than one-third of its international climate funding pledged this spring, while it provided billions of dollars of military aid to Ukraine.
Alejandra Lopez, a Climate Policy Expert at Transforma (an environmental think tank based out of Colombia), said that “it’s very disheartening, and worrisome.” “I don’t mean to be disrespectful. She says that war is a serious crisis. However, “even though this [war] scenario is very frightening, climate change continues be scary.”
For developing countries, which are most affected by global warming, the lack of urgency from the world’s richest economy aEUR”, and the country most responsible for climate change as a result of historical greenhouse gas emissions aEUR”, is frustrating. Every day that passes without action puts more people at greater risk.
According to the World Bank, climate change could cause nearly 5.8 million people to be in extreme poverty in Latin America, the Caribbean and Latin America by 2030. Even more dire is the outlook for island countries that will be completely underwater by midcentury and cities in Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, where heat and rising seas could force millions to migrate to survive.
Adow says that climate change has already claimed so many lives. Our continent has already paid a heavy price, be it drought, flood, or cyclones. This is deeply unfair.
The United States owes millions of dollars to poorer nations in climate funding. This is not charity. It’s more like reparations. It is based on the idea that countries who industrialized in the mid- and early 20th centuries became rich partly by burning oil, coal and gas. The greatest threat to climate change from emissions from this early industrialization is for developing countries. They have contributed less to global warming.
Countries agreed that some of the wealth from global climate negotiations must be used to create a cleaner global economy as well as protect low-income countries from the impacts of a warmer Earth. The 2015 Paris Agreement stipulated that developed countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia and Japan, would pay $100 billion annually to developing countries.
“This is the responsibility of the developed countries, because their emissions are a primary driver of climate changes that the world is currently experiencing, a disproportionate burden of whom is falling on developing nations,” Rachel Cleetus is an international climate policy expert at the Union of Concerned Scientists in the U.S.
However, that $100 billion has not been fully realized. Contributions were slightly lower than $80 billion in 2018, the latest year for which data is available. This may be due to the fact that the U.S. has contributed so little.
The U.S. delivered $1 billion under the Obama administration, which was only a third of the pledges it made under the Paris climate accord. The Trump administration ended U.S. participation in the Paris climate agreement.
Biden’s administration stated that it would fulfill past promises and contribute more than $11 million per year to developing nations by 2024. Last fall, the United States announced that it would send $3.1 Billion to climate-vulnerable developing countries.
In March, Congress only allocated $1 billion for international climate financing.
Adow from PowerShift Africa says that Biden was “a tremendous source of hope” when he took office. I would say that some of that hope was misplaced. He has not had much substance, but he’s made a lot of good promises. Now, we see billions of dollars being pumped into war in Ukraine.”
The U.S. sent $13 billion to Ukraine in March. An additional $40 billion is being added through Congress.
NPR was told by a spokesperson for the State Department that although U.S. international funding for climate change fell short in this year’s fiscal year, the U.S. remains committed to increasing climate support for developing nations.
According to climate economists, there are many ways the war in Ukraine slows down U.S. climate action. Global economic inflation is a result of the Russian invasion, which fuels opposition to major infrastructure legislation that remains in Congress. This legislation would allow the United States to meet its emission goals by investing in electric cars, solar and wind power, and energy-efficient building.
The Biden administration encouraged U.S. fossil fuel firms to produce more oil and gasoline because of higher gasoline prices.
Then there is the issue of mental bandwidth. “The greatest risk to U.S. climate actions is just a lack focus and attention,” Trevor Houser, a climate analyst from the think tank Rhodium Group in America, says. “Policymakers in all countries have limited attention, but the war in Ukraine requires a lot more focus and attention.”
Houser claims that the money being sent to Ukraine isn’t directly taking from climate initiatives. However, the U.S. is focusing on the war and its aftermath rather than the urgent work of adapting to climate change and reducing emissions around the globe.
Houser states that climate change is a major challenge because policymakers see it as tomorrow’s problem. It’s the one issue that you can always return to later.
The United Nations Climate Envoy Mark Carney, who spoke out this week about the dangers of war in Ukraine, warned that it was not a good idea to delay global warming mitigation efforts. He also cited the increasing effects of climate change on those living in developing countries.
The effects of climate change on the environment are causing severe flooding, droughts, wildfires, and heat waves all over the globe.
Recent natural disasters have highlighted the human cost. In April, hundreds died due to heat waves caused by climate change in India and Pakistan. Floods also occurred in South Africa. Crop damage and famine are being caused by the unending heat and drought in central Africa and the Middle East. Latin American countries are bracing themselves for another devastating hurricane season, without the infrastructure necessary to protect coastal residents.
There are many projects underway to protect Americans from these hazards. Public funding can be used to help rebuild homes damaged by wildfires or pay farmers for drought-related losses.
Many of these projects in developing countries are still waiting for funding. Lopez explains that Latin America has a huge need for infrastructure in public health to address the growing number of diseases as the Earth heats. Physical infrastructure is also needed in countries to protect citizens from storms and reduce urban emissions.
However, such projects need public funding. Many developing countries don’t have the tax revenue to pay for these protections and changes. Lopez says that although they know how to do this, they lack the funds to invest.
These investments can also reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. Many developing countries possess both abundant renewable energy and undeveloped oil or gas. According to the International Energy Agency, countries must stop investing further in fossil fuel development if they want to prevent global temperatures rising above 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).
Adow says that Africa is blessed with abundant renewable energy. He refers to Africa’s vast untapped wind, solar, and geothermal resources. According to a United Nations report, if more money was made available to kickstart clean technology projects in Africa, it would address both the causes and the effects of climate change.
He says, “We will be effectively powering this continent and lifting the people out of poverty without increasing emission.” We just need to raise the capital.