John Kerry, the United States’ special envoy for climate change, took the appropriate position prior to the 2022 U.N. Climate Change Conference of the Parties.
It is a well-known fact that the United States and many other countries would not build any kind of legal structure that is tied to reparations or accountability, Kerry said prior to the conference. But after saying, “That’s just not going to happen,” it happened.
In an effort to avoid headlines announcing yet another Biden administration failure, Kerry agreed to the creation of a fund that would be managed by U.N. bureaucrats and transfer wealth from industrialized nations like the United States to developing nations that claim they have been harmed by climate change.
Kerry was right from the beginning. The Biden administration’s surrender will not solve climate change, but it would unnecessarily burden American taxpayers with pointless legal obligations.
The fact that we already have a climate change fund that is intended to aid developing countries is the most obvious problem with starting a new one. Previously, the UN created the Green Climate Fund during the UN Climate Change Conference in 2010.
Rich nations are allegedly expected to provide this group $100 billion annually. Only $10 billion, though, has already been committed. The Obama administration only donated $1 billion to the fund before it left office, despite having pledged $3 billion. The Biden administration has only managed to collect an additional $1 billion so far. Former president Donald Trump didn’t give anything to the organization.
Therefore, given that the first climate fund so flagrantly failed to accomplish its goals, why are global climate bureaucrats creating a second one?
The Green Climate Fund, at least, set out to help developing countries adapt to climate change and install more energy-efficient technology. Spending money on projects that genuinely accomplish these objectives would be progress.
This cannot be true of a fund whose terrible premise is to provide greater funding to underdeveloped nations in order to make up for the harm they believe climate warming has caused. It generates adverse incentives that will lead to more economic harm and mortality.
Consider Pakistan, which has made an effort to link recent flooding to climate change and is one of the fund’s biggest backers. “This all happened despite our comparatively modest carbon footprint, and yet we were a victim of something with which we had nothing to do,” said Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. little to do? Really?
Due to the government’s support of a severe deforestation plan, only 5% of Pakistan’s territory is now covered in forests. Additionally, the government has allowed farmers to develop flood plains, which are critically required to mitigate the effects of severe rains.
Pakistan is extremely vulnerable to torrential downpours because of these non-climate-related political decisions. The floods in Pakistan was solely the result of Pakistani policies, but American taxpayers may be made to foot the bill. Even worse, a fund set up to cover climate-related losses will only serve to deter countries from adequately preparing for severe weather events.
Climates change because that’s what they do. The best thing humanity can do to continue dealing with climate change is to make sure that everyone on the earth is as wealthy as possible because this will allow them to adapt to it in the best possible way. Paying compensation to countries who don’t try to adapt is the incorrect course of action.
