Developing countries affected by climate change are looking for compensation from industrialized nations at the COP21 climate change conference in Paris, The GroundTruth Project’s Charlie Sennott said on Boston Public Radio on Monday.
“We are right at the half way point and now is when the really hard work really takes hold,” said Sennott, who attended COP21 last week. “They’re trying to hammer out this compromise and they have draft language done. It’s a 45-page document, so the ministers all gather today and start to really look at this document and see what they’re comfortable with.”
According to Sennott, one of the more contentiously negotiated stipulations in the accord concerns the issue of requiring industrialized nations to compensate developing nations for the damage their green house gas omissions have caused. Big polluters like the United States, China and India, are hesitant to sign anything that will require them to pay these environmental reparations.
“The poor nations on the other hand are saying hold the phone, we are the ones who are sort of baring the brunt of climate change and we had very little to do creating it. So, the wealth that you’ve made as industrial countries needs to come back to support the damage done to our climate that’s impacting us,” Sennott said.
The 30 or so most industrialized countries in the world would be considered responsible for these payments, Sennott says.
“There would be some form of a pool of funds to help those countries that are struggling the most with the impact of climate change. Island nations, like the Marshall Islands that are literally sinking and are not going to exist within a generation,” Sennott said.
If the climate accord does get signed with the reparations as part of the pact, Sennott believes that enforcement of the requirements will be nationally regulated and not globally.
“What they’re trying to do is to change this so that nation states themselves will be the ones who try to enforce the commitments that are made both in terms of reducing green house gasses and in terms of finical compensation,” Sennott said.
“Congress will work against it. The Obama administration will have to push hard for it.”
Listen to our interview with Charlie Sennott above.
