Climate Debt not paid at Copenhagen

After nearly two weeks of snail paced negotiations in Copenhagen, ActionAid decided that enough was enough. We decided it was time for our Climate Debt Agents to repossess the property of spoiler governments such as Australia to enable the least developed countries to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change.

In Australia’s case the Australian Ambassador’s Residence in Copenhagen was repossessed by ActionAid on behalf of the small Island States that Australia owes an unacceptable and, so far unpaid, climate debt to.

So what is this concept of climate debt?  ActionAid believes that rich countries owe poor countries a ‘climate debt’ for their excessive emissions over two centuries and the damage done to their populations by climate change.

ActionAid believes that as a first instalment of their climate debt repayment plan, rich countries must cut their emissions by at least 40 per cent against 1990 levels by 2020 and provide developing countries with at least US$200 billion a year in public money by the same date to enable them to tackle climate change effectively. These funds must be an additional contribution rather than a double counting exercise where precious development assistance funds are diverted for this purpose

It’s worth taking a moment to analyse the miserly response to date of the developed world in meeting their debt:

So far only Norway has agreed to reduce its emissions by 40 per cent (the figure recommended by the Intergovernmental Commission on Climate Change) and no rich country has agreed to pay its fair share of the US$200 billion (€132 billion) that is actually required.

To date the US and Australia have agreed to reduce their emissions by only 4 per cent on 1990 levels by 2020 – less than one-tenth of the 40 per cent cut that the science demands if global warming is to be kept below 1.5 degrees. Japan’s current target is for an 8 per cent reduction.

Canada is proposing to reduce its emissions by only 3 per cent on 1990 levels by 2020 – even though its existing Kyoto target is for a 6 per cent reduction by 2012.

The EU, led by the Swedish Presidency, has agreed a 20 per cent cut, half of the 40 per cent cut that the science demands.

None of the rich countries targeted, including Australia,  have said how much public money they would contribute to enable developing countries to cut their emissions and adapt to climate change.

In Australia the Government has been able to portray itself as a force for good in the response to climate change and this has largely been made possible by the opposition’s pathetic and divided response.

However the above facts demonstrate that Kevin Rudd and Penny Wong have not demonstrated any leadership, let alone taken any concrete steps to paying Australia’s climate debt to the least developed countries.

Rather Australia has been a spoiler at this conference and there is precious little time for Australia to adjust its position, get some serious emission reduction targets and financing commitments on the table and to save the developing world from a humanitarian catastrophe.

If this doesn’t change we might have to think about sending the ActionAid Climate Debt Agents to repossess the Lodge in Canberra next time!!