This year, for the first time in the history of the U.N.’s annual climate conference COP, the U.S. did not send any delegates. The purpose of these conferences is to assess progress and plan future efforts in mitigating climate change. As such, this absence sends a clear message: the U.S. doesn’t consider climate change its responsibility. That needs to change.
This perspective of guiltlessness is unmistakable in Trump’s second administration. On his first day in office, he signed an executive order declaring that any environmental agreement that the U.S. involves itself with “must not unduly or unfairly burden the United States.” This order revoked the U.S. International Climate Finance Plan, a Biden-era plan which organized and expanded financial support for climate resiliency in vulnerable nations. His administration has also largely dismantled USAID, which provided other international climate efforts.
Yet, this position is not altogether unique to Trump, even if it is uniquely voiced by him. Even Biden’s climate aid plan was not accompanied by true acceptance of responsibility toward others. Rather, his expressed rationale was that climate aid would promote U.S. “leadership,” allow other nations to “join our efforts” and eventually improve our national and economic security. This painted our efforts as charitable and strategic rather than reparatory. The American perspective stands that the U.S. is not obligated to support countries who have fewer financial means and greater liability, even if it so generously decides to do so.
This is wrong for a few simple reasons.
First, the U.S. is one on a short list of nations who shoulder much of the blame for the current climate crisis. It is responsible for nearly a quarter of global historic carbon emissions, and in 2023 it was the second largest emitter of CO2 in the world. It stands to reason that the responsibility for cleaning up a mess falls to those who made it in the first place.
Moreover, it is not as though all nations are equally capable of adaptation and mitigation. Rebuilding after natural disasters, designing more resilient infrastructure for the future and implementing sustainable technologies are not cheap endeavors. The U.S. is a highly developed and wealthy country, so it is among those nations best fit to combat climate change. Further, our prosperity is a result of the economy-driving industrialization which fueled this problem in the first place, which is only more reason for our duty to act.
And now, this duty is internationally recognized. A recent advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice found that historically high polluters have an obligation “to cut emissions and enhance sequestration of greenhouse gases.” Further, it argued that states have a duty to respect human rights across the globe “by taking necessary measures to protect the climate system and other parts of the environment.”
Indeed, arguably the most important reason for U.S. responsibility for mitigating the climate crisis is that it is not an abstract issue; it claims livelihoods and lives. For one thing, it worsens natural disasters like floods, heat waves, droughts and hurricanes. Jamaica, for example, faces an estimated $8.8 billion of damage from Hurricane Melissa. Scientists also found that climate change was responsible for 65% of deaths from European heat waves this summer, or about 1,500 people. On a larger scale, global air pollution claimed about 6.7 million lives in 2019 alone, according to the World Health Organization. These figures are only fragments of the far-reaching dangers of climate change, and they are not without a cause.
Our current position is far from innocuous America-first policy. We cannot say we are simply “putting America first” if that entails actively threatening lives and livelihoods across the world. The U.S. cannot reasonably refuse to support vulnerable nations and people – an ever-growing demographic – when this crisis is so dire and so blatantly on our hands. And to go further and continue to advance new fossil fuel projects that continue to jeopardize the safety of the present and future – as Trump so shamelessly does – is not just a misstep, but an act of violence.
How much longer will we deny this reality?
It is high time that the U.S. accepts responsibility for its hand in the climate crisis and its resulting harm. We must recommit ourselves to climate reparations, and when we do so, we must not disguise them as acts of charity. Only by recognizing the extent of our wrongdoings will we ever begin to make amends.
Delusional.