Why Should Developed Countries take Responsibility for Climate Change?
In the Paris Climate Agreements in 2016, almost every country in the world set common objectives to collectively offset anthropogenic climate change. But a 2019 National Geographic report claims that many developed countries are not making any significant efforts to meet their target. Similarly, during the COP15 in 2009, developed nations decided to jointly provide 100 billion USD per year by 2020 to developing countries in order to address climate emergency. However, now in 2020, the OECD stated that this goal has not once been achieved, with developed countries providing far less than promised.
But in the story of climate change and pollution, who really is responsible?
Economic development is associated with increased environmental degradation, because developing countries are usually very dependent on agriculture, use of fossil fuels and industrial activities, leading to increasing levels of greenhouse gas emissions. Indeed, according to the World Bank, low and middle income countries, which are at earlier stages of their development, have rapidly increasing rates of per capita CO2 emission, contrasting with the reducing rates of developed nations. They are thus expected to surpass the West in terms of emissions and environmental impact in the next decades. Due to population growth and industrial and agricultural expansion, they increasingly contribute to massive deforestation, rising CO2 emissions and produce large amounts of plastic waste that they are not able to adequately dispose of.
For instance, China produces more plastic waste each year than any other country in the world, and pours more concrete each year than the US did in the entire 20th century. Additionally, China accounts for 23% of yearly greenhouse gas emissions, which is more than its share of the world’s population. Despite this, China still has lower per capita emissions per year than many developed countries, including Finland, which is considered one of the most sustainable countries in the world. Additionally, both China and India are investing heavily in renewable energies and sustainable technologies, to offset their negative environmental impact.
In China and some other developing countries, CO2 emissions are starting to decrease, but these efforts are not enough to offset the negative repercussions of economic development. Today, developing countries in Asia, Africa, or South America emit vast amounts of greenhouse gases, caused by industrialisation and increased consumption.
Additionally, the majority of these nations do not have the financial or technological means, and are not yet developed and organised enough to be able to address questions of environmental protection and climate change.
Leaders of developing countries are also reluctant to invest on costly renewable energy projects, for which the social benefits usually outweigh the private investors’ benefit. Developing countries thus prefer cheaper and easier energy sources, which are often more polluting. According to a 2014 OECD report, polluting sources such as oil, gas and coal, account for 74% of total electricity production in East Asia (excluding high-income countries) and for 64% in sub-Saharan Africa.
Moreover, environmental sustainability is usually not very salient in regions plagued by civil wars, corruption, crime, or famine.
Whilst developing countries, through their economic and population growth, now cause most of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, historically, they might not actually be most responsible. Studies have shown that developed countries are responsible for 79% of total CO2 emissions between 1850 and 2011. If richer countries manage to have reducing emissions today, this is largely due to the financial and technological resources gained through their extremely polluting economic development since the 19th century.
In the 1990’s, surveys and empirical research established that environmental quality deteriorates in early stages of economic development and improves later as the country further develops and acquires financial wealth and improved technologies.
And indeed, in the last few decades, research and investment for renewable sources of energy in developed countries have been booming. Europe and the US account for most of the wind and nuclear power plants in the world, which emit far less CO2 than their coal or fossil fuel equivalents. Plants powered by renewable energies, despite having lower running costs, require expensive investment, and extensive and costly research, which most developing countries cannot afford.
The technological and economic achievements of developed countries, such as increased energy efficiency and renewable sources for electricity, have aided them in reducing their emissions and creating a more environmentally sustainable society.
In reality, the most developed nations today are not doing as much as they should be considering the scope of their responsibility and their means. Despite decreasing emissions, thriving renewable energy and technology industries, and a rising number of policies relating to sustainability, their efforts are far from being significant enough.
Per capita CO2 emissions still are much higher in developed countries than in low income countries. US per capita emissions are more than twice as high than China’s, and ten times higher than India’s. Data collected by the University of Oxford shows that whilst China produces the most plastic waste per year, its plastic waste generation per person is actually much lower than that of Germany, The Netherlands or even Norway.
Additionally, developed countries are disposing of their waste by sending large amounts to landfills in developing countries. In 2016, France sent 50% of its plastic waste to China, as the cost was hundreds of times lower than recycling domestically. Similarly, Africa’s biggest electronic waste junkyard in Ghana is filled with Europe’s electronic waste. This waste contaminates groundwater and rivers, and creates toxic air pollution, endangering the health of the local population. The Basel Action Network estimates that EU countries export about 352,474 metric tonnes of e-waste to developing nations every year.
The EU, with a GDP ten times higher than sub-Saharan Africa according to the World Bank, is sending it’s waste to Africa or to Asia. Yet, nations that developed more than a century ago, and are more technologically advanced, politically organised, and wealthy should be expected to have a neutral, if not positive environmental impact.
And if China is currently the country emitting the most CO2 because of its rapid industrialization, a very large share of the goods it produces is actually exported to developed countries. China accounts for 28% of the world’s manufacturing, and is the biggest exporter in the world. Thousands of western firms produce their goods in countries like China, Thailand, or Malaysia for cheaper costs, before shipping them back to Europe, the US… Yet the emission and pollution caused by these industries are still considered the responsibility of the developing countries, whilst developed regions manage to maintain reducing emissions because of this outsourcing, whilst maintaining their environmentally costly lifestyles.
Regarding climate change, developed countries have both a historical and current responsibility. However, their efforts today do not match their financial and technical means and most nations still have a terribly negative environmental impact. The richest nations in the world should not be sending their waste away instead of properly disposing of it, or exporting their industry to developing countries who will then have to bear the environmental costs.
And even though developing countries are predicted to cause most of the future greenhouse gas emissions according to the World Resource Institute, developed countries still have a responsibility to compensate for their past emissions and current adverse actions towards the environment and most vulnerable populations.
In the future, we must expect developed countries to increase their efforts to reduce global warming and environmental impact, but also provide assistance for developing countries to commit to a path of sustainable development.
