We are already seeing the devastating impacts of the climate crisis around the globe: from communities on coasts and islands being forced to move, to more frequent extreme natural disasters like tsunamis, hurricanes, and wildfires, to droughts and crop destruction. And the latest report from the U.N.’s scientific body shows that so little time to take action to avoid even more extreme impacts from a rapidly warming planet.
And it is with this backdrop that the international climate talks in Bonn, Germany are kicking off today. In the next two weeks of these talks there is an urgent and remarkable opportunity to establish a fund that will help frontline countries and communities respond to the effects of the climate emergency.
You might think that establishing such a global fund would be the obvious and just thing to do given the impacts we’re already seeing. But you might be surprised to learn that the main reason we don’t already have such a fund is U.S. obstruction at global climate talks and other policy arenas.
That’s why a team of Corporate Accountability organizers and many of our allies will be participating in these talks, and demanding the U.S. stop standing in the way of justice by creating a desperately needed pot of money to support communities — communities doing the least to cause climate change, but suffering the worst impacts — dealing with the impacts of the climate crisis.
Will you take action and echo this call by writing to John Kerry and the head of the U.S. delegation that will be at this conference? Let them know that thousands of us are watching and we expect the U.S. to own up to its climate debt and stop standing in the way of justice.
The U.S. is the world’s wealthiest nation, the largest historical emitter of greenhouse gasses, and is still the second-largest emitter. So the U.S. has an obligation to assist countries and communities most impacted by climate change in being able to respond to the climate emergency.
And while the Biden administration wants to be seen as a champion on climate, the U.S. has been and continues to be the greatest barrier to progress to address climate change internationally. The Biden administration cannot tout the need for ambitious and just climate policies on one hand, and block those very policies on the other.
The U.S. must pay its climate debt. This begins but doesn’t stop, with helping to establish a fund that helps communities address the impacts of the climate crisis.
Write to the U.S. negotiators right now and demand that they stop standing in the way of such a fund, and instead ensure that the U.S. honors its climate debt owed to frontline communities and countries. The more of us who take action right now and flood their email boxes, the more pressure they’ll feel in the room.
