If Obama’s serious about climate change, it’s going to cost him literally trillions of dollars.
While leaders from the world’s richest countries met in Paris to hammer out a global treaty on climate change, a group of poorer countries were also meeting—and figuring out how they could turn the West’s climate guilt into a big bundle of cash.
According to The Times of London, these countries came in with big demands—totaling $3.5 trillion—in order to sign on to the controversial treaty.
The Times reports:
“Developing countries have added a clause to the latest draft of the text under which they would be paid the ‘full costs’ of meeting plans to cut emissions.
An analysis of plans published by 73 developing countries shows that they want $3.5 trillion by 2030. India alone is seeking $2.5 trillion…”
However, the amount of money is proving to be a contentious point. Developed countries have pledged $100 billion a year in financing to poorer countries, by 2020.
While that’s a massive amount of money, it’s a far cry from $3.5 trillion.
India’s environmental minister, Prakash Javadekar, said that the West was going to have to do better—since the billions his country is currently receiving is “not significant.”
The big problem with getting poorer countries to sign onto climate change regulation is the added expense. When countries like the United States and the United Kingdom industrialized in the late 1800s and early 1900s, pollution wasn’t a concern—meaning factories and technology could be developed cheaply.
But by adding more expenses to startup costs for industrialization, it makes it harder for countries like India to develop—hence why they’re basically saying that, if the West wants climate change so badly, they’re going to have to pay for it.
So far, no final deal has been made.