Who Is Responsible for the Climate Crisis? A Perspective from the Global South

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article argues that insistence on adaptation to climate change, popularised by the rich nations of the Global North, is crowding out discussions on mitigation strategies. Mitigation (or degrowth) is central to formulating a fair and collective strategy to tackle the climate crisis at the global scale. In this context, we have calculated the historical cumulative emissions, material footprints, and carbon debt, which are essential prerequisites to tackling the climate crisis. This article empirically proves that the Global North owes a huge carbon debt based on historical cumulative emissions. We estimate the carbon debt of all the outlier countries (carbon debtors) to be US$ 3127.28 trillion, of which the US (the United States) and EU (European Union, including 28 countries) owe US$ 1174.19 and US$ 771.90 trillion, respectively. The paper concludes that any adaptation policy requires settling this debt through directly financing adaptation operations in the poor countries of the Global South and effective mitigation (de-growth) policies in the Global North.