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Global South Calls for $5 Trillion in Climate Reparations
Why the Global South is owed $5 trillion in climate reparations?
By Lidy Nacpil
The superstorms, floods, and heat waves of 2024 have been deadly for people and communities worldwide. Losses and damages have been especially heavy for us in the Global South, who are most endangered by the climate crisis despite contributing the least to global emissions. We urge the world’s leading historical emitters to pay the Global South at least $5 trillion a year in climate finance as part of the reparations for the chaos they’ve unleashed on the world’s most vulnerable people.
2024 has been a landmark year for the climate crisis. For the first time, the average global temperature stayed 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels for 12 months in a row. In the Philippines, extreme heat reached 47 degrees Celsius in April, prompting school closures and the collapse of power grids. In southern Pakistan, 568 dead bodies were collected over six days amid a heatwave in June. Most recently, catastrophic floods in Bangladesh have left 1.27 million families stranded without access to shelter, food, and clean water.
Global North nations are responsible for 50 percent of all planet-warming greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere despite making up only 12 percent of the global population. For centuries, industrialization via fossil fuels has enriched these nations, their elites, and their corporations while condemning the people of the Global South to displacement and dispossession. For their role in causing the climate crisis, the world’s leading historical emitters owe the Global South a climate debt, and part of the reparations for this debt is the payment of climate finance to the Global South.
Wealthy nations are not only obligated to cut their carbon emissions as soon as possible and reach zero domestically by 2035, but their accumulated historical emissions are so massive that their fair shares of mitigation actions include covering a large part of the costs of a fossil fuel phaseout and a just transition in the Global South. Further, they must also pay for the harm and destruction the climate crisis has inflicted on the Global South.
Global North governments have been shamelessly evading their climate finance obligations for decades. After failing to deliver their miserly target of 100 billion dollars a year–and confronted with an annual climate finance needs estimate of several trillion–they are brazenly shifting the responsibility to Global South countries by calling for “burden-sharing” and “expanding the contributor base.” They repeat the mantra they use in development finance discourse–”the key is to unlock private finance and investments”–and push for incentivizing private capital by guaranteeing profits from climate investments.
In response to the demand for reparations, the chief climate negotiator of the United States in 2009 argued that US citizens today shouldn’t be held accountable for the actions of their ancestors. To be clear, we are not asking the ordinary citizens of the U.S. and other rich countries to shoulder the reparations owed us by their elites, corporations, and governments. Their governments can raise funds for reparations by taxing the polluters and profiteers, stopping tax abuses of big corporations, ending illicit financial flows, and shifting public spending away from fossil fuels, military operations, and the military-industrial complex.
The climate debt owed by rich countries is so enormous as to be incalculable. After all, how can governments fully compensate for all the lives lost and livelihoods ruined? Even if the Global South can never be fully compensated for the damage done, Global North governments should start by paying an amount that covers the costs of mitigation, adaptation, just transition, and loss and damage in the South.
Based on current and projected costs of mitigation, adaptation, just transition, and loss and damage, fair reparations come down to a payment of at least $5 trillion annually to the Global South. Since the $5 trillion is a form of reparations, it is neither aid nor charity and should not be in the form of loans. The yearly $5 trillion should be public, non-debt-creating, and conditionality-free finance and channeled through democratic and transparent multilateral financial mechanisms.
UnitedHealthcare has named a new boss almost two months after its then-chief executive Brian Thompson was shot and killed in New York.
Company veteran Tim Noel will take charge of the largest health insurer in the US, which has more than 50 million customers, at a critical moment.
Mr Thompson’s killing on 4 December in central Manhattan ignited a wide debate about how the US healthcare system operates.
Many Americans, who pay more for healthcare than people in any other country, have expressed anger over what they see as unfair treatment by insurance firms.
Mr Noel “brings unparalleled experience to this role with a proven track record and strong commitment to improving how health care works for consumers, physicians, employers, governments and our other partners,” UnitedHealthcare’s parent company UnitedHealth Group said.
A manhunt ensued for days as police worked to identify who was responsible in the December killing, which happened outside a Manhattan hotel where the CEO was staying.
After five days, Luigi Mangione, 26, was arrested in a McDonald’s restaurant in Pennsylvania after a worker called police.
Mr Mangione has pleaded not guilty to charges in the killing. He is facing 11 state criminal counts, including murder as an act of terrorism.
As well as the state-level charges, he is also accused of federal – national-level – stalking and murder offences that could lead to a death penalty sentence.
Prosecutors allege that Mr Mangione shot Mr Thompson before going on the run.
Google has agreed to make “significant changes to its processes” to help tackle fake reviews of UK businesses, the regulator has announced.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) says the firm – which accounts for 90% of search in the UK – will attach warnings to companies found to have artificially boosted their star rating.
The worst offenders will have their review function deactivated, meaning they cannot receive any new reviews.
Individuals who repeatedly post fake or misleading reviews will be banned from posting – regardless of where they are in the world.
Consumer group Which? called the changes “a step in the right direction” but said they would need to be backed up with strong enforcement action, potentially including “heavy fines” if Google failed to stick to them.
Sarah Cardell, the Chief Executive of the CMA, said: “The changes we’ve secured from Google ensure robust processes are in place, so people can have confidence in reviews and make the best possible choices.”
The measures only relate to reviews for businesses when searching on Google or on Google maps.
They will not apply to reviews of products.
A spokesperson from Google told the BBC: “Our longstanding investments to combat fraudulent content help us block millions of fake reviews yearly – often before they ever get published.
“Our work with regulators around the world, including the CMA, is part of our ongoing efforts to fight fake content and bad actors.”
Japan’s central bank has increased the cost of borrowing to its highest level in 17 years after consumer price rises accelerated in December.
The move by the Bank of Japan (BOJ) to raise its short-term policy rate to “around 0.5 per cent” comes just hours after the latest economic data showed prices rose last month at the fastest pace in 16 months.
The BOJ’s last interest rate hike in July, along with a weak jobs report from the US, caught investors around the world by surprise, which triggered a stock market selloff.
The bank’s governor, Kazuo Ueda, signalled this latest rate hike in advance in a bid to avoid another market shock.
According to official figures released on Friday, core consumer prices in Japan increased by 3% in December from a year earlier.
The decision marks the BOJ’s first rate hike since July and came just days after Donald Trump returned to the White House.
During the election campaign Trump threatened to impose tariffs on all imports into the US, which could have an impact on exporting countries like Japan.
By raising rates now the bank will have more scope to cut rates in the future if it needs to boost the economy.
The move highlights the central bank’s plans to steadily increase rates to around 1% – a level seen as neither boosting or slowing the economy.
The BOJ signalled that interest rates will continue to rise from ultra-low levels.
Neil Newman, the head of strategy at Astris Advisory Japan said: “rates will continue to rise as wages increase, inflation remains above 2% and there is some growth in the economy.”
“We look for another 25-basis point hike in six months,” said Stefan Angrick, a Japan economist at Moody’s Analytics.
Last year, the BOJ raised the cost of borrowing for the first time since 2007 after rates
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