Obama Urged to Find Climate Money

Jeffrey Allen, OneWorld US Fri Nov 6, 12:52 PM ET

WASHINGTON, Nov 5 (OneWorld.net) - Climate analysts are calling on the Obama administration to use an international finance meeting this week to press for a swift end to subsidies for coal, oil, and natural gas companies around the world.

Obama should also move immediately to end subsidies at home to companies producing energy from fossil-based fuels, said Nancy Soderberg, who served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations under Bill Clinton.

This cost savings could then be applied to help communities adapt to the inevitable effects of climate change and prevent the worst from happening, Soderberg argued in an article on the Huffington Post Web site late last week.

The world's 20 wealthiest countries spend about $300 billion a year subsidizing the fossil-fuel industry. Just half that amount is what's needed to "get far ahead" of the climate problem, said Soderberg. She believes the United States' fair share of that sum is about $50 billion a year -- or one-third of the global total.

Soderberg penned the editorial with Francesco Femia. a climate analyst at the Connect U.S. Fund, which coordinates and funds efforts to promote responsible U.S. involvement in global issues. Soderberg heads the Fund.

"The challenge boils down to this," the two wrote, "the developed world -- responsible for today's crisis -- must help pay the costs for the developing world to do the right thing. Those catching up to us -- China and India -- will have to participate too, but developed countries need to lead." [» Read the whole editorial from the Connect U.S. Fund.]

Those who study climate change have long stressed that the people who will be impacted most by its effects -- family farmers and fisherfolk, nomadic and indigenous people, island dwellers, and hundreds of millions of others who live at subsistence levels and rely heavily on nature for their daily needs -- are the least able to cope, owing to their relatively low disposable incomes. By and large, they are also the least responsible for causing the climate to change.

The G-20 finance ministers are meeting in Scotland Friday and Saturday to move ahead on decisions made at a September summit in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which included the initial decision to gradually eliminate the fossil fuel subsidies. U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will represent the United States, and Soderberg hopes he makes fossil-fuel subsidies a top priority.

EU Officials Finally Put Numbers on the Table

The humanitarian agency Oxfam America agrees with Soderberg's assessment of the amount of money needed to deal with climate changes -- and the importance of U.S. leadership on the issue. The group responded with some disappointment and some hope this week after European countries announced how much they thought was needed to help poorer countries cope with the impacts of climate change and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. [» Read the statement from Oxfam America.]

EU officials meeting in Brussels said they believed somewhere between $32 billion and $73 billion a year would be needed. While Oxfam was pleased that some of the world's wealthiest governments had finally begun to discuss concrete numbers -- something they had long been hesitant to do -- the group was disappointed at the relatively smaller size of the EU estimate.

While Oxfam's estimate of $150 billion a year may sound like a considerable amount of money, it's clearly attainable, said Soderberg and Femia, noting that governments have spent about $15 trillion on bank bailouts and stimulus plans in recent months. By comparison, $150 billion is 1 percent of $15 trillion.

"The investment in saving our planet is no less urgent a challenge," the foreign policy experts wrote, contrasting the climate crisis with the economic one. "The risks to our national security are real, including natural disasters, political upheaval, and further instability in states that could harbor the next Osama Bin Laden."

Obama to Copenhagen?

The next major international climate discussions will take place in December in Copenhagen, Denmark. Many world leaders will be attending the UN climate summit, but U.S. President Barack Obama has not yet indicated if he will be there.

Hopes have diminished greatly that negotiators will be able to strike a legally binding deal at those meetings, as climate activists have long hoped. One of the primary sticking points is how much various countries will commit to spend to lower their own greenhouse gas emissions and help developing nations adapt to the effects of climate change.

As U.S. negotiators have so far failed to find enough common ground with their European and Asian counterparts or those representing the world's developing countries, some think that only if heads of state themselves attend the summit can a deal be hammered out.

Oxfam is encouraging its supporters to send letters to the White House asking Obama to personally attend the meeting. [» Read Oxfam's sample letter.]

"Dear Mr. President," begins the Oxfam letter, "I am encouraged by your outspoken support for transformational action on clean energy and climate change, but I'm worried that without you, there will not be bold action at the UN Global Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen.

"I urge you to make the U.S. a leader in crafting an equitable global treaty that provides substantial financing for poor and vulnerable communities to adapt to climate change. Around the world, the people hit first and worst by the impacts of climate change are the poor and vulnerable, particularly women."

"International investments are in the interests of global security and stability," the letter continues. "Climate-exacerbated impacts (droughts, floods, storms, disease) will increase environmental migration, poverty and hunger, and conflicts over scarce resources, as already seen in Sudan....The U.S. must lead governments in negotiating a fair, ambitious, and binding deal -- one that is safe for future generations and fair to those most affected."

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