Wealthy industrial nations like the USA, Great Britain and Germany would have to drastically reduce their emissions, said activists of the climate movement Fridays for Future from Kenya, Mexico and the Philippines of the German press agency. On the other hand, they would also have to provide more money so that their home countries could cope with the effects of climate change that are already being felt today.
“We expect the global north to pay for the damage it has caused in the global south,” said 18-year-old Mexican Adriana Calderon. “It’s that simple – but as we know, it’s not that easy.” Calderon, like other activists from all over the world, demonstrated with Greta Thunberg in Stockholm for more climate protection on Friday and in a few days he will drive with the others to the world climate conference in Glasgow. This starts on October 31st.
The rich countries have promised to allocate $ 100 billion each year to mitigate and adapt to climate change in poorer countries. Mitzi Jonelle Tan, who is one of the leading faces of the fight for climate justice in the Philippines, complained that this sum is not enough and will not even be served today. This is not about solidarity support, but about a bill to be settled. “The countries of the global north have to pay this debt to humanity and the planet,” she said. It could not be that countries like the Philippines would have to take on debt in order to fight the climate crisis out of their own pockets.
The 23-year-old from Manila, like her Kenyan colleague Kevin Mtai, emphasized that their countries will not only feel the effects of climate change in the future, but already today. It is therefore important that people from their regions of the world sit at the table at the climate conference in order to draw attention to the urgency of the climate crisis today, said Tan.
Mtai said Kenya was among the countries hardest hit by climate change, despite emitting significantly less harmful CO2 than others. “Germany, the US and the UK are the ones that emit a lot of CO2. They destroy the environment, ”said the 26-year-old. Many Kenyans suffered from a drought that killed animals and lacked food and water. “And that’s because of climate change.” The more prosperous countries would have to find a way in which they could better support such states.