Rich countries to pay for climate guilt

Should we pay for the past? Rich countries have agreed to pay developing countries
for their part in causing climate disaster. Some think it is too little too late.

Fatal flooding in Pakistan. One in seven people becoming homeless in Bangladesh. A deadly cyclone in Malawi.

To many, it seems unfair that poorer countries are being left to fend for themselves against devastating weather conditions.

After all, developed countries are responsible for 79% of carbon emissions throughout history, but studies show that developing countries are affected the worst by climate change.

This year’s COP27, where 200 different countries negotiated what to do about climate change, agreed upon a solution.

They will establish a fund for poorer countries to recover from the damage. Rich countries will put money into the fund, since they created the vast majority of pollution.

Developing countries have been asking for money as compensation for climate damage, often called reparations, for more than thirty years, but this is the first year that the idea progressed.

The countries that will receive the fund are mostly from Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and the South Pacific. It will be paid by the United States, European Union and other wealthy nations.