Clarified: Who pays the cost of climate change?
The global temperature is rising, leading to widespread changes in weather patterns. Who stands to lose the most to the resulting climate crises? And whose responsibility is it to try to stop it?
The global temperature is rising, leading to widespread changes in weather patterns. Who stands to lose the most to the resulting climate crises? And whose responsibility is it to try to stop it?
The global temperature is rising, leading to widespread changes in weather patterns. Who stands to lose the most to the resulting climate crises? And whose responsibility is it to try to stop it?
Hurricane Ian, heavy flooding in Kentucky and a yearslong mega-drought raging on in the Southwest — climate change is making its effects known in the U.S. Last year, those crises devastated communities, took lives and cost the government hundreds of billions of dollars. As the consequences of climate change continue to get more severe in the U.S. and around the world, some groups of people stand to lose more than others, despite contributing the least to the problem.
Evidence is hard to ignore
The latest report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reveals that in order to hit our climate change targets, emissions have to be dramatically reduced. The Paris Climate Agreement, signed by 196 countries, has the goal of keeping global temperature increase well below 2۫ degrees Celsius with efforts placed to keep warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Currently, global temperatures have risen 1.1 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels of the 1750s. In order to keep warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius, emissions would have to be halved in the next seven years, a feat that looks very unattainable at the world’s current trajectory. Surpassing the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold would mean the world would see more extreme weather, including longer droughts, widespread biodiversity loss and a lack of clean water. These events are costly too, not just in terms of livelihoods and community, but also financially. The U.S. spent $165 billion in 2022 responding to climate-related disasters, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Who suffers the most?
The devastating effects of climate change aren’t dished out equally, though. Unfortunately, the most vulnerable people are hit the hardest. In the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency showed that members of ethnic minority groups are most at risk of suffering the consequences of sea level rise, childhood asthma and premature mortality from extreme temperatures. The same pattern holds throughout the rest of the world, with countries in Africa and Southeast Asia most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Countries in those regions have the least ability to adapt to climate change and are also in regions that will be the hardest hit. Unfairly, these counties have also contributed the least to climate change in terms of fossil fuel and CO2 emissions.
A good example of this climate injustice is Pakistan. In the summer of 2022, the country suffered some of the most severe flooding on record. After extreme heat waves and temperatures reaching 120 degrees Fahrenheit, the monsoon rainfall hit in June. The dry ground struggled to take in the water and created flash floods, destroying crops, taking the lives of 1,700 people and displacing 8 million. It’s estimated that the floods affected one in seven people in the country, and as of December 2022, a quarter of the country was still underwater. As a country, Pakistan has contributed 0.3% of cumulative global emissions since the industrial revolution. The U.S., on the other hand, accounts for 24% of all historical emissions globally.
The Loss and Damages Fund
At the most recent U.N. Climate Summit, the 2022 COP27 meeting, developing countries won a major battle against climate injustice. For years, a group of the most vulnerable nations demanded help from the historically biggest polluters like the U.S., Europe and the U.K. At COP 27, a deal was reached to establish a “loss and damage” fund which would subsidize developing nations, helping them react to climate-caused disasters. The fund faced initial resistance from the U.S. and Europe, but after an all-night negotiating session between delegates of the nations, the fund was agreed to. The sources of the funding are still in discussion. The U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres suggested that one source of funding could come from windfall profit taxes on fossil fuel companies.
Although countries may be hesitant to pay into the fund, the cost of inaction is far more inconvenient and deadly. It is estimated that without serious, immediate action, by 2050, 200 million people a year could need international aid, and funding that would cost billions.
At the COP27 conference, Pakistan’s climate change minister, Sherry Rehman, said, “This is not about accepting charity. This is a down payment on investment in our futures, and in climate justice.”