DOUGLAS, Isle of Man, Nov. 11, 2022 The COP climate conference which begins next week must create a concrete plan for climate reparations on par with the Marshall Plan which funded the post-war rebuilding of Western Europe, announced Chris Caldwell in an article published today (‘The selfish case for climate reparations’).

‘A grand transfer of resources,’ is required from historically high carbon emitters in the Global North, to those in the Global South most vulnerable to climate change, argues Caldwell. As well as the moral case for ‘loss and damage’ – the official terms for reparations with the UN climate process and one of the three pillars of the 2015 Paris Agreement – rich nations should also prioritise climate payments to the developing world as a matter of self-interest, ‘to protect and rebuild those markets which will be the basis of future trade, peace, and prosperity.’

Loss and Damage on the agenda in Egypt

With Sharm El-Sheik hosting the 27^th round of COP negotiations, starting November 8^th, 2022, loss and damage have taken centre-stage as a key priority for the Egyptian hosts. Attempts to create a Glasgow Mechanism for climate reparations at the 2021 conference were widely viewed as a failure; yet a spate of natural disasters so far in 2022, including the worst flooding on record in Pakistan this summer, have renewed focus on support for developing economies.

Green Climate Fund not fit for purpose

In outlining his plan for an ambitious new loss-and-damage process, Caldwell – who is also the host of the Conversations on Climate podcast – highlighted the failure of the Green Climate Fund, which has paid out on just two billion of its 100 billion/year commitment to supporting at-risk nations. ‘Once again, words fail to translate into action,’ when it comes to existing commitments from the Global North, ‘and yet what is needed is even greater ambition.’

Caldwell’s analysis draws on his twenty years in the clean energy sector. He is the CEO of United Renewables, a full-cycle developer of clean energy projects across solar, wind, tidal and anaerobic digestion technologies. His expertise in financing and constructing over forty such infrastructure projects around the world leaves him well-placed to understand the scale of investment and planning that nations struggling to adapt to, and rebuild from, climate disasters are facing.

Conversations on Climate brings world-leading thinkers from business and academia together to share their expertise on the subject of climate change. Previous guests include Sir Andrew Likierman, Julio Dal Poz, Professor Jean-Pierre Benoît, and Professor Ioannou.

All previous episodes can be found here. Related articles can be found here.

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