(New York) With the historic floods in Pakistan, the pressure on developed countries that have built their wealth on fossil fuels has increased a notch, the poorest demanding compensation for the devastation caused by global warming.
Posted at 10:49 a.m.
The official term for international discussions on the financing of this unavoided damage is “loss and damage”. But some activists want to go further and insist on talking about “reparations”, on the model of claims for compensation for the descendants of slaves.
Beyond a question of vocabulary, climate defenders are also calling for the cancellation of the debts of countries on the brink of financial abyss which spend a huge part of their budget paying interest instead of investing in measures to prepare. to inevitable disasters.
“There is historical precedent, not just the industrial revolution which led to increased emissions and carbon pollution, but also the history of colonialism and the history of resource extraction, wealth and labour,” commented activist Meera Ghani.
“Colonialism”
“The climate crisis is a manifestation of interlocking systems of oppression, it is a form of colonialism,” says the former member of Pakistan’s climate negotiator team.
The idea is not new, launched decades ago with the support of small island states threatened by rising sea levels. new impetus.
It is clear that the most vulnerable countries in the South are the least responsible for global warming. And today, Pakistan, for example, produces less than 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions, compared to almost 80% for the G20 countries.
On the international scene, the response to the climate crisis has long been centered on reducing emissions, adapting to future impacts, and helping poor countries to finance these two aspects. With the acceleration of disasters already underway, “loss and damage” has become a hot topic.
But the poor countries did not obtain a financial commitment last year at COP26, the rich countries only conceding the holding of a dialogue on the subject until 2024.
Either way, rich countries are still failing to deliver on their past promise to increase aid to developing countries to $100 billion a year by 2020 to tackle emissions reductions and prepare for the impacts. And adaptation is the poor relation of this climate finance, which most often comes in the form of loans.
“Why countries that have contributed little to emissions should ask for help [aux pays riches], in the form of loans, with onerous repayment terms? “says Maira Hayat, of Notre Dame University in Indiana.
“If the vocabulary bothers some, the next step is to ask themselves this question: are they challenging history or the current consequences of the past? »
“Significant Actions”
In the climate sphere, not everyone is convinced.
“Beyond a certain rhetoric which consists in counting the points, it is going nowhere,” said Daanish Mustafa, of King’s College London, who pleads for the development of a low-carbon economy.
Although he acknowledges that the North is largely responsible for global warming, he fears that this argument will excuse political choices that can exacerbate the impact of extreme weather events.
Thus, in Pakistan, the torrential rains have indeed “probably” been reinforced by warming, but the impacts have also been aggravated by the poor management of rivers, dykes and dams, or uncontrolled urbanization, according to the World Weather Attribution scientists.
With COP27 in Egypt less than two months away, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres this week said it was “high time for serious discussion and meaningful action” on loss and damage.
But the subject is sensitive for rich countries, especially the United States. When the Paris agreement was concluded in 2015, which mentions “loss and damage”, they had obtained a clause which specifies that the agreement “will not serve as a basis” for incurring “responsibility or compensation”.