The industrialised Global North is responsible for 90 per cent of excess emissions and owes every Indian $1,446 in compensation until 2050, according to a new study.
The United States holds the single largest climate debt to low-emitting countries at $2.6 trillion per year, as per the study.
The industrialised Global North is responsible for 90 per cent of excess emissions and owes every Indian $1,446 in compensation until 2050, according to a new study.
Over all, the Global North owes $170 trillion in compensation to low-emission countries like India, says the study.
Thse are the findings in a study by researchers at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom. It was published in the Nature Sustainability journal on Monday.
The study says, as per the current state of affairs, low-emitting countries like India would bear more weight of emission-reductions than the industrialised world when historic pollution by the Global North is taken into account.
What does the study find?
The Leeds researchers' study is about the disproportionate share and responsibilities to keep the world under the 1.5*C temperature increase.
It's understood that if the world permanently crosses the 1.5*C increase in temperature from the pre-industrialisation levels, then the world would be likely in an irreversible state of climate change damage.
"The researchers from University of Leeds, the UK, analysed 168 countries and quantified historical responsibility for climate breakdown, based on excess carbon dioxide emissions beyond equality-based fair share of global carbon budgets," reported PTI.
The study further said that, in such a case, the Global North needs to compensate the Global South.
"Research on carbon inequalities shows that some countries are overshooting their fair share of the remaining carbon budget and hold disproportionate responsibility for climate breakdown. Scholars argue that overshooting countries owe compensation or reparations to undershooting countries for atmospheric appropriation and climate-related damages," says the study.
The researchers proposed an evidence-based compensation mechanism, notes PTI.
"The researchers proposed an evidence-based compensation mechanism that takes into account historical responsibility for both causing and averting climate breakdown in an ambitious scenario where all countries decarbonise from current levels to net zero by 2050, which science says would limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius," notes PTI.
"The study is based on the idea that the atmosphere is a commons – a natural wealth for everyone to access equitably and sustainably. We obtained remaining global carbon budgets for 1.5 degrees Celsius and 2 degrees Celsius from the IPCC and distributed fair shares across 168 countries, based on population," PTI quotes ecological economist and study researchers Andrew Fanning as saying.
Fanning added, "Then we compared each country's fair share against how much CO2 that country has released historically from 1960, together with a business-as-usual scenario and an ambitious scenario where it decarbonises from current levels to net zero by 2050. The results are striking."
The study said that even under ambitious scenarios limiting global warming to 1.5*C above pre-industrial levels, the Global North would overshoot its collective share of the carbon budget by a factor of three, appropriating half of the Global South's fair share in the process, and reasearchers called such a state of affairs as "unjust".
The study found that countries like India would face the bigger brunt in containing climate change and global warming.
"The study found that a handful of low-emitting countries, especially India, would sacrifice a majority of total appropriated emissions to balance the excess of over-emitting countries and keep global heating within 1.5 degrees Celsius, the research says," noted PTI.
It further reported that the top five over-emitting countries, including the United States, Germany, Russia, the UK and Japan, would be liable to pay $ 131 trillion, which would be more than two-thirds of total compensation. The United States holds the single largest climate debt to low-emitting countries at $2.6 trillion per year.
On the other hand, the top five low-emitting countries, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Nigeria, and China, are entitled to receive $102 trillion in compensation or reparations.