NZ offers $20m in climate reparations
New Zealand has joined a small club of countries promising reparations for the damage caused to poorer nations by climate change.
The Government’s $20 million climate payment – coming out of the $1.3 billion aid fund announced last year – could help build trust with our Pacific neighbours but also peeve some major trading partners.
The sum will go to developing countries that have contributed little to the emissions problem, yet are already feeling the effects of extreme weather in the 1.1C warmer world. For example, while Fiji contributes only 0.006% of global carbon emissions, rising tides and supercharged storms have battered its homes and farms.
Vulnerable countries argue the developed world, with its large historical greenhouse gas contribution, is liable for the damage to their communities and economies.
In making a payment, New Zealand has backed these countries – in contrast to the EU and the US, who are wary of any moves even suggesting financial compensation.
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced the $20m payment on Wednesday. The funding ‘‘strongly signals our support for Pacific priorities’’, she said in a statement.
Pacific leaders have told her how climate change is affecting people and ecosystems.
‘‘It threatens the very basis of their lives. Loss and damage is happening to homes and crops and fisheries, but it also happens to cultures, languages, people’s mental health and their physical wellbeing.’’
The funding is not additional. It will be taken from the current climate aid pot, Mahuta said. The Government announced last year NZ$325m will be provided annually out to 2025 – equating to US$190m towards the US$100b in climate funds that developed countries promised to give every year.
The announcement is timely, with the 197 countries signed up to reduce greenhouse emissions under the Paris Agreement currently meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt at COP27.
Climate Change Minister James Shaw – who will depart on Friday to attend the summit – said comparatively wealthy countries like Aotearoa have a duty to support those most at risk.
New Zealand ‘‘is taking a leading role to advance global action on loss and damage’’, Shaw said.
However, one estimate calculated the global bill for unavoidable damage could exceed US$1 trillion (NZ$1.7t) by 2050.
The $20m could go into a central fund, to be distributed to at-risk countries, Mahuta said. But the Government was supportive of ‘‘a wide range of funding arrangements’’ to distribute the cash, and wanted to hear from Pacific governments, she added.