The recently concluded COP28 Summit in the UAE marked an early success on its first day itself as participants reached a historic agreement to operationalise the Loss and Damage Fund to compensate developing countries for the brutal consequences of climate change.
The host promised $100 million to the Fund, as did Germany. France and Italy committed about $110 million each. The UK pledged roughly $60 million. In contrast, all that the US managed to promise during the conference was $17.3 million, triggering controversy.
The US carries a greater burden than any other country in taking climate actions. It has the largest share of historical emissions and is also the biggest economy on the planet. But far from taking leadership, the country’s climate response has been seriously inadequate.
US’s Contributions To The Climate Cause Remain Modest
Not only has the US not substantially cut down on its emissions, it has done little to meet its financial and technological obligations. Both the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its 2015 Paris deal stress developed countries must take the lead in the fight.
The US never ratified the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and therefore, never abided by the emissions reduction targets assigned therein. The country has rejoined the Paris deal but its contributions to the climate cause remain extremely modest.
Despite China emitting much more in the past 15 years, the US still has the largest share of historical emissions, accounting for more than 20% of all CO2 emissions since 1850. Around the early 1990s, it accounted for over 30% of all historical emissions till that time.
Developed and industrialised countries responsible for the maximum share of historical emissions at the time had to take the lead in reducing emissions. That group of some 40 countries came to be known as Annex-I countries.
US’s Climate Targets For Future Don’t Look Very Ambitious
A recent assessment by UNFCCC showed that by 2020, when the Kyoto Protocol came to an end, the Annex-I countries had reduced their net emissions by about 25% from 1990 levels. But the contribution of the US came to be next to nothing – just 0.4%.
There are other Annex-I countries that performed worse – eight of them to be exact. But the US alone emits about four times the combined emissions of all eight. The country still maintains it has met its 2020 targets, and that is because it had pegged its goal.
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The targets for future are not very ambitious either. Following the criticism for its contribution to the Loss and Damage Fund, the US soon announced a $3 billion commitment to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) for the next four years, bye far the largest figure from any single country.
