You Break It, You Buy It: Big Bill for Wealthy on Climate Change Costs
The rich caused the problem and must therefore pay the price of fixing the global climate change crisis, a new report said on Monday. - Reuters
My first reaction is: well, duh. My second reaction is: let’s not hold our breath.
The report is from Christian Aid, an agency of British and Irish churches who said “industrialized nations were historically responsible and therefore morally liable to foot the multi-billion dollar cost of tackling the problem of man-made emissions of carbon gases.”
Um, plot spoiler, Washington’s got a big bill. The Greenhouse Development Rights estimates that the United States’ share of climate costs is 34.3 percent, with the European Union on 26.6 percent. India and China owe 0.3 percent and 7.0 percent of the bill respectively.
This has not stopped the US delegation from blowing hot air on Kyoto at the Bali UN Climate Conference. Pretty ballsy considering the tab due from Washington is somewhere around $212 billion, annually, according to British economist Nicholas Stern.