MER Nov. 2022
The price paid for industrialization and sustaining an average lifestyle in post-industrial age includes the 420ppm carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere today. Other heat-trapping greenhouse gases like methane and nitrous oxide abound still. Statista reveals that energy consumption per capita in Iceland is over 52,000 kilowatt-hours.
That’s a far cry from a paltry 135 kilowatt-hour by the average Nigerian in Western Africa. Although the right to the common wealth of pristine environment and untorn ozone layer belonged to every nation, it appears those in the global south have sacrificed more for the damages done to the earth.
The economies of these low- and medium-income countries (LMIC) are more vulnerable to extreme weather events. African Development Bank (AfDB) recently noted that Africa loses between 5 to 15 per cent of its GDP to climate
change annually. A huge part of the arguments on Net Zero targets used to be about acceptance of responsibility for polluting the environment. That is no longer the case. Thanks to the negotiators at the just-concluded COP27 in Sharm
El-Sheikh, Egypt.
Now, there is a dilemma of how much the loss-and-damage finance facility should be computed. During the meeting in Egypt, Colombia had penciled down $800 billion as compensation for its losses and damages. That’s roughly 2.5 times its GDP. But the 2.5 times national GDP model is overly ambitious. It means developing economies like India, Brazil, and Indonesia would walk away with $6.6 trillion, $5.1 trillion, and $2.5 trillion respectively.
The numbers get crazier when all developing nations are factored in against the backdrop of a total global GDP of $81 trillion (2017)…
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