News
Climate Change: Issues Affecting Poor Countries
August 14, 2017This text was published in La Presse on November 24, 2015
Authors: Nigel Martin, Yves Pétillon, Mario Renaud and Pierre Véronneau (former Executive Directors for the Canadian Council for International Cooperation – CCIC, the Centre for International Studies and Cooperation – CECI, the Canadian International Development Agency – CIDA, and OXFAM Québec))
The International Climate Change Conference, better known as COP21, will take place in Paris from November 30 to December 11. The main objective of the conference will be to reach an agreement for reducing carbon gas (CO2) emissions resulting from the burning of fossil fuels and to thereby limit temperature increases to a maximum of 2oC. It is hoped that that commitments will be compelling and involve all countries, whether rich or poor and whether their emissions are high or low. Poor countries emit the least amount of gas and yet, paradoxically, are the first victims of the effects of rising temperatures. Negotiations are underway to set up a special fund to help these countries face the effects of climate change and implement their own measures for reducing emissions, however small they may be.
INEQUALITY OF CO2 EMISSIONS
The level of CO2 emissions varies greatly from one country to the next, owing largely to people’s lifestyles. China is currently responsible for 27.5% of CO2 emissions, the United States, 14.5% and Canada, 1.4%. It is, however, more significant to consider this in relation to countries’ differences in population sizes. In the United States, each individual is responsible for creating 16 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year, compared at 14 tonnes per person in Canada, 7 tonnes per person in China and just 0.1 tonnes per person in the world’s poorest countries. Worse yet, economists Thomas Piketty and Lucas Chancel [1] found that 1% of the richest people in North America are responsible for 200 tonnes of emissions per year – 2,000 times the individual emissions of the poorest 10% of Africans!
LEAST WEALTH, FIRST VICTIMS
Despite their low emissions, people in the poorest of countries will be the most greatly impacted by climate change. The World Bank just published a report [2] showing that by 2030, climate change is likely to drag more than 100 million people below the poverty line, in addition to the billion people already living there. The positive trend of poverty reduction observed over the last 10 years will likely be reversed, rendering obsolete some of the sustainable development objectives adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations.
Those who will be the most greatly affected will be farmers in poor countries subjected to increasingly frequent climate disasters, such a drought and massive flooding. In addition, most communities in poor countries will face spikes in basic food prices due to declining production. These same people will be at greater risk of malaria and other illnesses aggravated by extreme climate events.
WORLD FUND FOR POOR COUNTRIES
Negotiations are underway and a fund is being set up to release $100 to $150 billion per year to help the world’s poorest countries mitigate the effects of climate change and adopt measures to reduce their own CO2 emissions, even when their emissions are already low. Setting up this fund was a key condition in order for poor countries to sign the agreement.
For now, wealthy countries do not seem particularly interested in contributing, despite the fact that they are responsible for the majority of CO2 emissions. One concern expressed by poor countries was that the fund promised to them will never be disbursed, as has far too often been the case in the past, or that the promised funds are actually those already set aside under Official Development Aid (ODA) and not additional.
Economists Piketty and Chancel propose several innovative scenarios to supply such a fund that are based on the idea that countries that emit the most CO2 should pay into the fund, i.e., the “polluter pays principle”. One such scenario would require countries with emissions above the world average per capita to supply the fund, making North America responsible for 37% of the fund, the EU for 20% and China for 15%. Another scenario would put the onus on the top 1% of individual emitters, making North America responsible for 57% of the fund, the EU for 15% and China for 6%. The final scenario involves the fund being supplied by an airplane ticket tax of US $20 for economy class and $US 160 for first class. This type of tax alone would create more than US $150 billion per year.
If current negotiations lead to an acceptable agreement, it will be crucial for individuals, communities and civil society organizations [3] to remain vigilant to ensure that states make good on their commitments, which will also require changes in our lifestyles at both the individual and community levels.
[1] "Carbon and inequality: from Kyoto to Paris. Trends in the global inequality of carbon emissions and prospects for an equitable adaptation fund". http://piketty.pse.ens.fr/files/ChancelPiketty2015.pdf
[2] World Bank. "Shock waves: managing the impacts of climate change on poverty". https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/22787/9781464806735.pdf
[3] See "International Civil Society Call to Address Inequalities and Social Justice in Climate Policy". https://initiativeforequality.org/