“The greatest effort of the climate transition must ultimately be borne by the people who have the wealth, and this has to be true both within countries and between them.”
A major focus of international climate justice advocates, especially those from developing nations in the Global South, is the climate debt between the world’s rich and poor. A Civil Society Review report finds that the U.S. and EU are jointly responsible for more than half (54%) the cost of repairing the damage caused by climate disasters in the Global South. International Climate justice advocates focus on the debt that richer nations owe poorer nations for causing climate change, the effects of which will unjustly impact poorer nations disproportionately. However, climate debt is oftentimes overlooked. Climate justice advocates in richer nations like the U.S. and U.K. tend to focus on inequity within their countries, sometimes overshadowing international climate debt as an issue.
Richer nations (such as the U.S. and European countries) have used fossil fuels to power their economies since the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century. These wealthier nations are most responsible for the rapid growth in greenhouse gas emissions and have benefitted the most from burning fossil fuels, thus owing much of their wealth to their pollution.
Another aspect of climate debt is that the countries that have contributed least to global warming are often the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Poorer countries will be worst impacted by climate change because of overlaying vulnerabilities—they rely heavily on climate-sensitive sectors, have high levels of poverty, low levels of education and limited human, institutional, economic, technical and financial capacity.
For example, the Netherlands (a richer country) and Bangladesh (a poorer country) have disparate climate impacts. As explained in The Geography of Climate Justice, “In 2010, the Netherlands was ranked the 7th most developed country in the United Nations Human Development Index while Bangladesh was ranked 129th out of 169 countries. Both countries are low-lying and exposed to sea level rise but the Netherlands has a greater ability (e.g. engineering skills, financial support for development and implementation of coastal zone management plans) to make adaptations to its coastal zone in order to prevent flooding than Bangladesh. The Netherlands has a ‘high adaptive capacity’ compared to Bangladesh where there is a higher chance that tens of thousands of people will be displaced and lose their livelihoods”.
A critical point to remember when it comes to emissions impact is that the majority of the human population lives in the Global South. Bangladesh has a population 8x greater.) than the Netherlands. More lives are affected and more lives are harmed. For all these reasons, climate debt is an essential aspect of addressing climate change.
Inequalities also exist within countries. Oftentimes, the world’s richest people are most responsible for climate change (energy used for house footprint, travel, material consumption) while the poorest of society will bear the brunt of negative impacts of climate change (food insecurity, water stress, natural disasters, economic losses, health emergencies). The world’s richest 1 percent have carbon footprints that are 175 times higher than the poorest 10 percent. Between 1990–2015, The richest 10% of humanity (c. 630 million people) accounted for 52% of the cumulative emissions, depleting the global carbon budget for 1.5C by nearly a third (31%).
Growing wealth inequality is worsening the climate crisis and its injustices. One of Oxfam’s reports found that global inequality has increased in parallel with carbon emissions: