Rich vs. Poor: Who Should Pay To Fix Climate Change? | Hot Mess 🌎 — Transcript

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1. 0:03In the 1700s, as Great Britain was ramping up its manufacturing, it realized it was sitting
2. 0:07on a seemingly endless supply of cheap energy that burned better than trees: Coal.
3. 0:13All this black stuff in the ground was a game-changer, kicking off a new age called the Industrial
4. 0:18Revolution.
5. 0:19You may have heard of it.
6. 0:20Over the past few centuries, a handful of countries reaped the benefits of fossil fuels
7. 0:24and developed their economies, emitting a lot of greenhouse gases along the way.
8. 0:29We now know these gases have changed the climate.
9. 0:32But since the mid-2000s, an interesting shift has occurred.
10. 0:35The majority of greenhouse gas emissions are now coming from large developing countries,
11. 0:40who are looking for cheap energy sources to drive their own economic growth, just like
12. 0:44rich countries before them.
13. 0:46So who's responsible for fixing this mess?
14. 0:49The rich countries who have played the biggest role in causing it?
15. 0:52Or the poor countries who are currently emitting the most carbon?
16. 0:56[OPEN]
17. 0:59As the world has awakened to the downsides of coal and other fossil fuels, developing
18. 1:05countries have found themselves in a catch-22.
19. 1:08They also want to grow their economies and infrastructure, and the easiest -- and cheapest
20. 1:12way -- to do that, is by burning fossil fuels.
21. 1:15But that will exacerbate climate change, which will hit many developing countries the hardest
22. 1:20and quickest as they deal with increasingly intense and deadly heat waves, droughts, and
23. 1:25tropical storms.
24. 1:26The thing is, developing countries don't want to put their economies on pause while they
25. 1:30invest in low-emission energy sources that may cost more.
26. 1:34That’s where international climate agreements come in!
27. 1:36In the 2015 Paris Agreement, the world’s countries all set goals to reduce their emissions,
28. 1:42and a crucial part of the deal is that wealthy countries are contributing money to help developing
29. 1:46countries pay for the costs of cutting emissions.
30. 1:49They’re supposed to do it through the Green Climate Fund.
31. 1:52That fund will also help poor tropical nations, who don’t contribute much to climate change
32. 1:56at all but will be among the hardest hit.
33. 1:58Small island nations, for example, collectively contribute less than one percent of global
34. 2:03emissions, but generally lack the resources and infrastructure to bounce back from the
35. 2:07impact of rising sea levels and stronger tropical storms.
36. 2:10So, why should rich nations pay the price when developing nations are the ones currently
37. 2:15emitting the majority of greenhouse gases?
38. 2:17That’s the million dollar question…
39. 2:19well, actually the 30 TRILLION dollar question.
40. 2:23What that means is climate change will be terrible for rich countries too.
41. 2:27If fossil fuel emissions continue at their current rate, summer temperatures in many
42. 2:31places will spike by more than 4˚C degrees by 2100.
43. 2:35That may not seem like a lot, but it’s about the same difference in temperature between
44. 2:39this year and the last ice age.
45. 2:42But that ice age thawed over the course of several millennia -- not a century.
46. 2:47Adding that amount of heat will cause havoc in a variety of ways: More of the world’s
47. 2:52population will be exposed to heat stress.
48. 2:54Tropical diseases will spread to new regions, water will become more scarce, and crop yields
49. 2:58will take a major hit.
50. 3:00And this will cost a TON of money - 30 trillion dollars in damages globally from just 2 degrees
51. 3:05Celsius.
52. 3:06On the other hand it’s estimated that for big emitters to make the necessary changes
53. 3:10to cut fossil fuel use, it will cost about half a trillion dollars, which is a lot.
54. 3:16But half a trillion dollars, 30 trillion dollars… you do the math.
55. 3:21The quicker we act to reduce emissions, no matter who’s making them, the more effective
56. 3:25our efforts will be and the better chance we have to avoid some of the most disastrous
57. 3:29effects of climate change.
58. 3:31So, climate change hits our bottom line, and speed is of the essence, and practically speaking,
59. 3:37rich nations can act faster and do more right now.
60. 3:40Nations that have more stand to lose more from climate change, which is why it’s also
61. 3:45in developed nations’ best interests to lead the charge in cutting their own emissions
62. 3:49while at the same time helping other countries do the same.
63. 3:53Paying now will save trillions of dollars by preventing global destruction, displacement,
64. 3:58and loss of life in the future.
65. 4:01No one wants to be the country responsible for screwing things up for everybody.
66. 4:05Fixing climate change would be a far more satisfying legacy.
67. 4:09And that’s something that every nation on Earth, rich or poor, should be able to agree
68. 4:13on.