Report: Wealthy Nations Owe $13T in Climate Pledges

Facts

• On Wednesday, the British nonprofit Oxfam said wealthy nations owe poorer nations $13T in development aid to combat the effects of climate change. Instead of paying the debt, wealthy nations are demanding these nations pay $232M per day in debt payments owed.¹
• As the 2022 COP27 summit concluded, there was hope that there would be aid for poorer nations with the creation of a fund designed to help those nations suffering from climate change. No payments to the fund had been made by wealthier nations.²
• Following COP27, the president of the COP28 summit, Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber of the United Arab Emirates, urged the world to triple its commitments to clean energy, technology for transitioning to clean energy, and adaptation measures in developing nations by 2030. The current pledge, dating back to 2009 at COP15 is $100B.³
• In Oxfam's statement, the interim Executive Director Amitabh Behar said, "Wealthy G7 countries like to cast themselves as saviors but what they are is operating a deadly double standard — they play by one set of rules while their former colonies are forced to play by another."¹
• Behar went on to say, "It's the rich world that owes the Global South: the aid they promised decades ago but never gave, the huge costs from climate damage caused by their reckless burning of fossil fuels, the immense wealth built on colonialism and slavery."¹
• The UN's Secretary-General António Guterres continues to advocate for both poor nations to receive aid for development and for wealthy nations — who make up 80% of global emissions — to cut down on emissions drastically to address climate change challenges.⁴

Sources: ¹Al Jazeera, ²Washington Post, ³RFI, and ⁴VOA.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Washington Post. No government in the world has the funds to give developing countries full aid for their transition to clean energy and climate-friendly practices. The UN should be reaching out to development banks that use government funds to encourage economic growth instead. Those same institutions could provide loans that would reduce the risk to private investors. This is the most pragmatic approach the global community and international development system can likely take at the present time.
• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Oxford Political Review. Historically speaking, wealthy nations have raided foreign countries and exploited the land and the people for their own benefit. Those same nations are now responsible for the damage done in these countries and the damage done to the climate from their pillaging of the Earth. International distributive justice is the only path forward to rebuild the colonized and marginalized countries that are now being ravaged by the impacts of reckless actions and poor choices made by wealthy giants.