28 Nov 2024
The polluter should pay
The polluter pays principle is a fundamental part of environmental law. If someone causes damage they should pay a fine and/or be responsible for the cleanup. The latest UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan, was a test of the willingness of rich nations to pay for the damage caused by greenhouse gases they have been pouring into the sky for years. These gases trap heat in the atmosphere causing climate disruption. Wildfires, droughts and floods made worse by global warming are already costing many lives and billions of dollars a year in damage to people’s homes and livelihoods. Emissions continue to rise and the damage will worsen. As always at these climate meetings there was plenty of hope and acrimony. A group of leading economists has estimated that poorer countries need to about US$1 trillion year in outside funding in addition to spending about the same amount from their own resources to make a transition to clean energy to cope with extreme weather. After hard negotiations that stretched the conference into overtime the consensus was that wealthy nations would pay the poor $300 billion per year in support by 2035, up from a current target of $100 billion. They also pledged to work to increase flow of money to developing countries, from public and private sources, to $1.3 trillion a year by 2035. Some developing nations were bitterly disappointed in the deal reached. Ani Dasgupta, President and CEO of the World Resources Institute, summed it up this way: “The $300 billion goal is not enough, but is an important downpayment toward a safer, more equitable future. The agreement recognizes how critical it is for vulnerable countries to have better access to finance that does not burden them with unsustainable debt. And it opens the door for a broader set of countries to contribute.”