China, the world’s biggest producer of greenhouse gasses and one of its greatest economies, could benefit from the Biden administration’s decision to pay climate reparations to developing countries.
The United States and other wealthy countries will pay developing countries for loss and damage brought on by climate change through the establishment of a climate justice fund, according to administration officials who attended the United Nations Climate Change Conference over the weekend. Though the U.N. still views China, which has the second-highest GDP in the world, to be a developing nation, making it eligible for the fund. According to the New York Times on Saturday, this classification has caused the United States to scramble to ensure that China will eventually contribute to any fund created and that China would not be eligible to receive money from it. In addition to its economic standing, China is by far the biggest carbon emitter in the world: According to CNBC, the communist country’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2019 exceeded those of the U.S. and other developed nations combined, according to CNBC.
Just a few days earlier, John Kerry, the vice president’s climate czar, had assured reporters that the establishment of a fund was just not happening. Kerry stated on November 12: “It’s a well-known fact that the United States and many other countries will not establish some sort of legal structure that is tied to compensation or liability.”
Along with the Biden administration’s backing for climate reparations, conference delegates also came under fire for traveling in gas-guzzling private jets to the two-week conference in the posh Egyptian resort city of Sharm El Sheikh. According to Business Insider, more than 400 private planes swarmed Egypt’s airports during the climate summit, and Brazil’s next president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, went there aboard a billionaire businessman’s private jet. The meeting from the previous year, held in Glasgow, resulted in the release of over 103,000 metric tons of greenhouse emissions, or almost 7,000 times the annual carbon footprint of the typical American.
Daniel Turner, the founder and executive director of Power the Future, reprimanded the U.N. claiming that U.S. taxpayers shouldn’t pay extra for climate reparations as they previously paid for public officials to “live glamorously and travel the world in the name of climate change.” and other global climate leaders for their exorbitance.
