The new Carbon Brief analysis shows that the US has paid far less than what its ‘fair share’ of the $100 billion climate-finance goal is.
Namely, the world’s leading economy should have contributed close to $40 billion towards said target, whereas, the analysis shows, it paid only around $8 billion in 2020.
Other countries have been lagging behind on their contribution, as well, including Canada, Australia and the UK.
The share that each country is supposed to pay to meet the internationally agreed target is proportionate to its share of historical greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
The 100$ billion climate-finance target was agreed upon during the COP15 climate conference, back in 2009, when developed countries said they would deliver their financial contributions by 2020,
As the US is responsible for about 52% of the world’s historical emissions, which, after accounting for private-finance contributions, would mean that the country’s ‘fair share’ of the $100 billion should be $39.9 billion.
Relevant: COP27: Poor Countries Demand Funding From Wealthy Nations
However, as per the data for 2020 (the most recent year, for which there is information available), the US paid only $7.6 billion, underpaying by roughly $32 billion.
It’s a similar situation with Canada, which only paid 37% of its fair share in 2020, falling some $3.3 billion short.
On the opposite end of the spectrum are Japan, Germany and France that contributed more than their fair share of the $100 billion target, although most of their finance was in the form of loans instead of grants.
Thus, only $83 billion of the agreed $100 billion were raised in 2020 and expectations are that the climate-finance target won’t be reached until 2023.
Read more: World Bank To Launch New Fund To Reduce Carbon Emissions
