First Denmark to contribute money to the United Nations Climate Change Damage and Mitigation Fund – Can it be achieved?
Essay by Eric Worrall
$13 million off, only $99,987 billion left…
Denmark becomes first UN member to pay for ‘loss and damage’ caused by climate change
Via Sarah Kaplan
September 20, 2022 at 6:23 p.m. EDTDenmark will spend about $13 million to support vulnerable countries that have suffered”loss and damage“From climate change – for the first time in the history of the United Nations, a wealthy member state has pledged to compensate for the consequences of emissions in developing countries.
The landmark announcement came Tuesday as diplomats and world leaders gathered in New York for the United Nations General Assembly. Earlier, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres urged countries to tax companies that use fossil fuels and use the revenue to help those struggling with the irreversible harms of climate change. climate change.
In one statementDanish Development Minister Flemming Møller Mortensen said that a visit to flooded areas of Bangladesh this spring helped inspire commitment.
“It is not fair that the poorest people in the world suffer the most from the consequences of climate change, when they have contributed the least,” said Mortensen.
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What can I say – the amount, 13 million dollars, is a ludicrous gesture, a mockery, if Denmark really believes that they are partly responsible for the untold climate damage in the countries. poor.
Otherwise, the only way for that money to be meaningfully spent is to buy goods generated through the same fossil fuels that the compensation is supposed to deal with.
Fossil fuels and modernity have greatly benefited even the poorest – even those living in mud huts own portable radios, TVs and metal tools, and few especially a small part of access to modern medicine through charitable outreach organisations. Lifespans have improved around the world, except maybe in horror show modes like North Korea and Venezuela – all thanks to the goodness of fossil fuels.
Truly a theater of nonsense – but activists will use this token gesture to try to get the US to pay billions of dollars.