Monday, November 8th, 2021
Final spurt in Glasgow
Climate protectors: rich countries should pay
The states have only a few days left at the World Climate Conference to take decisions on compliance with the climate targets. Climate activists are demanding that rich countries pay compensation to the poor for the accelerated global warming. Ex-US President Obama also spoke up.
A few days before the end of the World Climate Conference in Glasgow, development workers are appealing to industrialized countries to finally promise poor countries compensation for losses due to accelerated global warming. Developing countries are already paying the bill for a crisis that they did not cause, said Oxfam delegation leader Tracy Carty. The industrialized countries now have until Friday to show the people on the “frontline of climate change” that they will not be left alone. Because of global warming, droughts, floods and hurricanes have increased, especially in the southern hemisphere.
Climate protectors usually see those countries as responsible for global warming, which already benefited from industrialization in the 19th and 20th centuries, but were at the same time particularly responsible for the release of greenhouse gases.
The former US President Barack Obama, meanwhile, appealed at the world climate summit to listen to the countries particularly affected by climate change. “They send a clear message: if we don’t act now – and act boldly – then it will be too late,” said Obama in Glasgow. The 2015 Paris Climate Agreement would not have come about if small island states and poorer countries had not taken the floor and made their stories audible. “We haven’t done enough,” admitted the Hawaiian-born ex-president, who described himself as an “island child”. It must now be ensured that promises for more climate protection will also be kept. In Glasgow, around 200 countries are still wrestling until Friday about how global warming can be limited to 1.5 degrees and how the Paris climate agreement can be implemented. The previous plans are nowhere near sufficient for this.
“Nobody should duck away from responsibility”
Oxfam delegation leader Carty further demanded that the COP26 conference must oblige all around 200 represented states to improve the national climate protection commitments they have submitted to the UN. This is the only way to keep the goal of stopping global warming at 1.5 degrees compared to pre-industrial times. “The commitments made so far add up to a catastrophic increase of 2.7 degrees.” She added: “This is a crisis COP. There is no time to lose. Nobody can duck away from responsibility.”
Dipti Bhatnagar from the Friends of the Earth International group from Mozambique complained that many representatives of poor countries were unable to travel due to a lack of visas and vaccinations. German Oxfam expert Jan Kowalzig said rich countries should commit to providing half of climate finance for adaptation by 2025 and additional money to offset losses and damage. Numerous ministers and heads of government came to Scotland on Monday to stimulate the negotiations. Funding is one of the most contentious issues.