User:Oliveleaf4/Climate reparations

Climate reparations are loss and damage payments for damage and harm caused by climate change, which may include debt cancellation. The term climate reparations differs from simple "loss and damage," in that is based on the concept of reparations, that compensation holds countries accountable for historical emissions, and is an ethical and moral obligation.

"The idea behind calls for loss and damage funding is that the countries that have done most to pollute the atmosphere, and grown rich doing so, should compensate," according to The New Republic.

Current efforts
Climate reparations have been under discussion in connection with the catastrophic 2022 Pakistan floods. i As of October 14, 2022, the Scottish governmen t is calling for loss and damage funding as a moral responsibility.

The New Yorker published an article on climate reparations by David Wallace-Wells in conjunction with COP 26.

Climate reparations, in the form of loss and damage funding for developing nations, will also be "top of the agenda" at COP 27, according to the World Economic Forum. Environment and Climate Change Csnada has announced support for discussion of "loss and damage," and the U.S. has announced support for "formal negotiations over possible climate reparations."

Considerations for implementation
A "corrective justice model" could be based on governments accepting moral responsibility for damage to climate. In this model, the countries most responsible provide funding to the Global South, which has done relatively little damage to climate. Funds might be distributed by an “international compensation commission,” which adjudicates claims by affected countries.

Another approach would be lawsuits against corporations responsible for carbon emissions or damage to climate, in which courts would determine the funding to be distributed to affected parties.

Compensation could be distributed based on a "Polluter Pays" principle, meaning "that in addition to having to cover the expense of corrective action, the polluter also has to pay to compensate those who have suffered environmental harm as a result of their conduct."

Mechansms for distribution of funding could include debt forgiveness and direct grants for climate adaptation and mitigation efforts.

Challenges for implementation include accountability and evaluation to ensure that funds do not disappear due to corruption. Although IPCC has a task force on measuring emissions, it does not yet have a task force capable of establishing metrics for climate mitigation impact.

Opposition
Some opponents have argued that current generations should not be considered responsible for the greenhouse gas emissions of their ancestors. Since it was not widely understood before 1990 that greenhouse gas emissions would be a problem, some opponents argue that pre-1990 emissions should not be taken into consideration. One organization has pointed out that a relatively small number of corporations have been knowingly responsible for large amounts of damaging emissions for forty years, and argues that a public which has been willfully deceived by corporate public relations campaigns should not be expected to pay for these damages.

Proponents
Vanuatu, a small island nation vulnerable to sea-level rise, has considered suing for climate reparations.

Pakistan and other nations from the Global South will be pushing for climate reparations at COP27.

Organizations supporting debt cancellation as a means of climate finance include the African Forum and Network on Debt and Development, the CARICOM Reparations Committee, the Transnational Accountability & Justice Initiative, Fridays for Future Bangladesh, and the Jubilee Debt Campaign. Climate campaigners have estimated that the G20 nations are collectively responsible tor about 80% of greenhouse gas emissions, and some assert that expecting the poorer countries to bear the brunt of climate impacts is essentially continuing a legacy of colonialism and oppression connected with extractive industries.

Fridays for Future strikes “for climate reparations and justice" took place in about 450 locations in September 2022, including Berlin, Kinshasa, Bengalauru, India, New Zealand, and Japan.

An opinion piece in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists suggests that "rather than on locking down borders as a response to climate migration,' it is important to acknowledge "climate displacement as something driven by our fossil-fueled way of life in the Global North," and "focus on the question of responsibility and reparations, in a moral, legal, and financial framework under international law."

The CARICOM Reparations Commission is more blunt: "Either we allow climate migrants to move in, or we compensate these refugees financially for the damages caused by our greenhouse gas emissions."

Precedent
The principle of loss and damage appears in the 2015 Paris Agreement as a mechanism for climate finance.

However, the $100 billion in climate funding in the Paris Agreement had not yet been paid as of April 2022.