With a consideration that South African minister’s comments are at odds with US position, it is held that China and India shouldn’t be liable for climate damage.
Barbara Creecy, South Africa’s Environment Minister, has called for immediate financial aid for developing countries hit by climate disasters, laying the bill at the door of the US and Europe’s richest nations.
In her view, wealthy countries should provide aid through a so-called loss and damage mechanism, and multilateral development banks should be recapitalized to provide more finance to tackle global warming, she said on the sidelines of the COP27 international climate summit in Egypt.
However, China and India — the world’s biggest and third-biggest emitters of greenhouse gases respectively — should be excluded from paying compensation as they are still developing their economies, Creecy added.
READ MORE: Nigeria 2023: Will past US Drug Cash Settlement Saga Dent Tinubu’s Electoral Chances?
Officially, the minister’s comments, came after she met with other African ministers to align their positions, and highlighting the global rift on climate matters.
Thus, Officials from the developing world have long said that wealthy nations, which have benefited from the industrialization that has warmed the planet for two centuries, are liable for compensation.
Hence, “From the perspective of the African Group of Negotiators we do need to see immediate support for loss and damage on the continent,” Creecy said. “Of course” we want money right now, she added.
READ MORE: Putin ‘Stashes £12.3 billion in African State’
With the agreement to discuss loss and damage being a breakthrough, anything involving compensation and liability “is just not happening,” said John Kerry, the US special envoy for climate change. Other developed nations also called for India and China to contribute.
China is said to emit 11.47 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent annually, while India produces 2.71 billion tons, according to Carbon Atlas. The US emits 5 billion tons, and Russia lies in fourth place at 1.76 billion tons.
