Emissions ‘cut both ways’
Rich countries have a double duty to both cut emissions at home and to help fund emissions reductions in poor countries. That’s the conclusion of Hang Together or Separately?, a report from Oxfam which argues that only rich countries can prevent the world lurching into climate disaster.
The report claims to offer a pragmatic way to measure the emissions targets of rich countries, and how much developing countries must receive to help them cut their emissions as well. It proposes the establishment of a ‘Global Mitigation and Finance Mechanism’ to provide poor countries with the upfront support they need to limit the growth in their emissions without compromising their development.
Rich countries, it says, must collectively cut their emissions by at least 40% and spells out exactly how much each country must cut emissions by to meet this target. The UK, for example, must cut its emissions by 45.3% by 2020 – the EU should have a combined target of 45%.
While rich countries are responsible for three-quarters of greenhouse gas emissions, the poorest people are being hit first and hardest by a changing climate. Many developing countries have taken steps to reduce emissions and are looking to rich countries for financial and technological support. For example, Mexico has committed to halving emissions by 2050 and China is a world leader in renewable energy investment.
“Rich countries have the money and the technology to pull us from the brink of no return,” said Oxfam’s Campaigns and Policy Director Phil Bloomer. “They have a double duty – to deliver massive emissions cuts at home and provide money for poor countries to tackle their emissions too.”
The Global Mitigation and Finance Mechanism would use money from the sale of carbon permits to provide the upfront support developing countries need. The world’s poorest countries, such as Uganda and India, would receive 100% of the funding they need to shift to a low-carbon development path. However, more advanced developing economies such as Brazil and China would be expected to fund a proportion of the costs, depending on their economic capabilities.