Counting On … – Page 16

Counting on … day 138

8th September 2025

Inequalities vis a vis the climate crisis exist not just between richer and poorer nations, but also between different communities within individual nations. Typically poorer communities struggle more and are more frequently adversely affected by the climate crisis. Whilst richer communities are better insulated against the impact of climate change whilst at the same contributing far more to the problem.

“The wealthiest 1 per cent of people in the UK each produce 11 times the amount of carbon emissions of someone in the poorest half of the population … Their carbon footprint is 6 times that of the national average. Those in the wealthiest 10 per cent – with income after tax of at least £41,000 per year – have a carbon footprint that is more than double the national average and four times that of someone in the poorest half.” (1)

Richer people because they spend more, consuming more goods and services, will generate a larger carbon footprint. At the same time, as influencers and trend setters they encourage others to to mimic their high carbon lifestyles. One clear example of this is the explosion in the number of SUVs that now fill our streets. These began life as a utility vehicle for areas where the ground was rough and unsuitable for regular vehicles. Next they became the new toy for the rich and wealthy. Now they are the must-have for the aspiring classes. So rather than seeing a switch to smaller, less polluting electrical vehicles which would benefit air quality, reduce pollution, and assist in mitigating the affects of climate crisis, we have a increased pollution and higher carbon emissions.

(1) https://www.oxfam.org.uk/media/press-releases/wealthiest-brits-have-a-carbon-footprint-11-times-that-of-someone-in-the-poorest-half-of-society/

More information on SUVs –

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c778ekg64mjo

Counting on … day 137

5th September 2025

Loss and Damage Fund

Mitigation and adaption funds may help countries minimise the impact of climate change but they do not per se cover the cost of making good damage caused by climate change. Mitigation and adaption funds may be used to limit flooding for example, but do not pay for replacing buildings and infrastructure damaged by floods, nor pay compensation for loss of income and livelihoods.

For many years poorer, vulnerable countries have been campaigning for the establishment of a Loss and Damage fund whereby the richer countries would contribute towards the cost of climate induced disasters. Finally at in 2022 at COP 27, there was agreement to set up such a Loss and Damage Fund.

What has not yet been agreed is:

Who will be able to access the Fund: richer nations want this limited to the most vulnerable nations
What costs will be covered
Who will pay into the Fund and how much.

As of April 2025 a total of USD $768.40 million has been pledged to the Fund by 27 contributors including the UK who contributed $52 million (1)

A study by the World Economic Forum in 2023 found that over the previous 20 years, extreme weather events globally, like hurricanes, floods and heat waves, had cost the global economy an estimated $2.8 trillion. (2) Whilst that sum would include developed and developing countries alike, it does point to the pitiful size of the Loss and Damage Fund.

(1) https://unfccc.int/topics/climate-finance/funds-entities-bodies/fund-for-responding-to-loss-and-damage/pledges-to-the-fund-for-responding-to-loss-and-damage

(2) https://www.weforum.org/stories/2023/10/climate-loss-and-damage-cost-16-million-per-hour/

Counting on … day 135

4th September 2025

“Debt-for-Climate Swaps (DFCS) are an agreement between a sovereign and its creditors that reallocates a portion of ongoing debt obligations toward investments in climate action. Such transactions provide opportunities for countries to enhance both fiscal stability and climate resilience, mobilising critical investment in areas such as renewable energy, urban infrastructure, sustainable agriculture and water security, forest conservation and restoration”. (1)

The biggest such scheme has been undertaken by Ecuador: “The Galapagos conversion … exchanged $1.628 billion in Ecuadorian government bonds for a $656 million impact loan*. The transaction will generate savings to the Ecuadorian fiscus of $1.126 billion through 2041. In return, Ecuador will direct savings of $323 million by 2041 to the conservation of the Galapagos and establish a new endowment fund maturing to $227 million to finance their preservation thereafter.” (2)

*Ecuador obtained a loan of to buy back $1.6 billion US bonds (face value) now valued at $656million because of the decline in Ecuador’s economy. Then Ecuador was provided with a ‘blue loan’ of $656million. Blue Loans are designed such that some of the money will positively improve marine biodiversity so helping to mitigate for climate change; by making such loans, the lender can improve their green credentials. In this instance Ecuador agreed to provide $17.5 million a year to protect the marine protected areas surrounding the Galapagos Islands. (3)

Blue loans – also known as blue bonds – are probably better described as Debt For Nature Swaps (DFNS). There are also Green loans or bonds which can finance Green Loans protecting land based biodiversity. So far they have been more DFNS than infrastructure focused DFCS.

(1) –https://www.greenclimate.fund/document/debt-climate-swaps-exploring-avenues-and-opportunities

(2) https://climatefundmanagers.com/2023/05/09/climate-fund-managers-announces-largest-debt-for-climate-conversion-in-history-to-protect-the-galapagos-islands/

(3) https://www.cffacape.org/publications-blog/galapagos-debt-swap-these-deals-are-being-used-to-privatize-the-management-of-strategic-areas-without-the-consent-of-those-who-inhabit-these-territories

Counting on … day 134

3rd September 2025

Vulnerable countries weighed down by debt are often ‘encouraged’ to exploit oil and gas reserves as a way of financing their obligations. Uganda, for example, took a $1 billion loan from the IMF in 2021, using some of the money to build the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). Whilst Uganda and its neighbour Tanzania, will eventually get some return from this project, the bulk of the profits (70%) will accrue to Total (62%) and China National Offshore Oil Corporation (8%).(2) At the same time farmers have been displaced from their land, villagers evicted, migration routes for wild animals have been blocked, and vast tracts of the Murchison Falls National Park are at risk from damage and pollution. And the burning of the oil extracted (which will not benefit local people as it will be sold on the international market) will generate over 34 million tons of CO2 emissions per year.

You can support the campaign against this oil pipeline and its climate destroying effects here – https://www.stopeacop.net/

Counting on … day 133

2nd September 2025

Debt Justice (formerly Drop the Debt which organised the Jubilee Debt Campaign in 2000) has this year (another Jubilee Year) launched the Cancel Debt, Choose Hope campaign.(1) The ask is, sadly, still the same: calling on the richest nations to cancel the debts of the poorest – the most vulnerable. Research shows that lower-income country debt payments have TREBLED over the last decade, and right now fifty-four countries are in crisis. (2)

The injustice of this debt crisis means that interest payments to the rich are made at the expense of the poor. As Bernard Anaba in Ghana recently explained:“Public services are in crisis – pupils aren’t getting exercise books and some schools don’t even have chairs or desks for the children. Food prices have sky-rocketed and in hospitals, patients are asked to pay for medication that is meant to be free.”(3)

You can sign their petition here – https://act.debtjustice.org.uk/canceldebt?utm_medium=impactstack&utm_source=website&utm_campaign=Global_south_debt&utm_content=jub25&_gl=1*1g79pn*_ga*NzQxMTM1NzU5LjE3NTQ1NjIyNzk.*_ga_NTSKCLSS55*czE3NTY3OTgwMDkkbzIkZzEkdDE3NTY3OTg2NjEkajU1JGwwJGgw*_ga_PH0J1TDVZM*czE3NTY3OTgwMTEkbzIkZzEkdDE3NTY3OTg2NjAkajU3JGwwJGgw

Or take further action here – https://debtjustice.org.uk/get-involved

https://debtjustice.org.uk/

(2) https://debtjustice.org.uk/news/2025-the-year-we-cancel-debt-choose-hope

(3) ditto

Counting on … day 132

1st September 2025

Climate change adaptation and mitigation can be expensive in terms of upfront investment. Overtime that investment will protect life and well being, enabling communities and economies to survive and flourish. Such expenditure will also be far less than the costs that would be incurred if no action were taken and the climate crisis were allowed to spiral out of control.

Unless governments and international organisations take responsibility for this, the poor and most vulnerable are going to suffer the most. In the UK the poorest members of our population are typically those with poorly insulated homes, those least able to replace household equipment with low energy models, those with least access to cooling green spaces, those least able to afford food as prices accelerate etc.

Globally it is the poorest and least developed counties who are suffering the harshest impact of climate change, and they are the least able to afford the costs of mitigation and adaptation. Often these countries are heavily indebted to richer countries or institutions and spend far more of their annual budgets on interest on these loans than they can on improving living standards through public health infrastructure, eduction, and medical care.

This is why many charitable organisations are calling for both debt relief and debt cancellation for these countries and for substantial grants from the wealthier nations to enable these vulnerable countries both to adapt and mitigate vis a vis climate change and, as needed, to pay for reconstruction when extreme weather events and other climate events have inflicted disaster on these countries.

Counting on … day 131

29th August 2025

Climate adaptation means altering the way we live, how we build new or retrofit existing buildings, how we farm and what crops and plants, the diets we eat, how shape drainage systems and flood defences, how we conserve limited water supplies – basically how we adapt our lifestyles and infrastructure so that we can cope with the ‘new normal’ climates.

The quicker and more effectively we mitigate against climate change, the easier it will be to put in place adaptations that will meet both our needs and those of future generations.

For previous articles on adaptation, see https://greentau.org/tag/adaptation/page/2/

Counting on … day 130

28th August 2025

Increases in temperature and in the frequency of extremes of weather (which for the UK means increasingly unpredictable seasons and no certainty as to whether summers will be hot and dry or not quite as hot but wet) are now a reality we must live with. But hopefully if we act now with sufficient determination, we can ensure that this base line remains static for future generations.

Climate mitigation means changing the way we do things, the way we live, the systems we use, so as to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and thus to reduce the rate of increase in global temperatures – hopefully keeping them below 2C. Mitigation won’t be able to reduce global temperatures from the levels they have already reached – we don’t have the means to remove the sheer amount of carbon dioxide that we have put into the Earth’s atmosphere over the last couple of centuries.

The root meaning of mitigate is to soften, to calm or pacify.

Counting on … day 128

26th August 2025

Base lines shift not only in our psyche but in science too.

“A heatwave is an extended period of hot weather relative to the expected conditions of the area at that time of year, which may be accompanied by high humidity…[It is] met when a location records a period of at least three consecutive days with daily maximum temperatures meeting or exceeding the heatwave temperature threshold.” (1)

Heatwaves are thus relative rather than absolute. As temperatures have risen, so the threshold for a heatwave has increased. (2) In London the threshold was 26C but as of 2022 it is now set at 28C. We have had four heatwaves this summer in London, so I guess it is possible that the threshold marker will be raised again.

https://weather.metoffice.gov.uk/learn-about/weather/types-of-weather/temperature/heatwave

(2) https://www.rmets.org/metmatters/shifting-baseline-uk-heatwaves

Counting on … day 129

27th August 2025

Climate change means that the likelihood of hotter and more prolonged heatwaves will increase. Culturally in the UK, the pessimistic view is that our summers of cold and wet and not as good as the long, hot and relaxing summers that Europe enjoys. Therefore spells of hot weather are seen as things to be enjoyed! We have not yet come to understand that heatwaves can be uncomfortable, damaging for our health and destructive for agriculture.

Our buildings and urban areas – unlike many of their European counterparts – are not designed to provide shade and protection from high temperatures. Nor are our working practices adapted to cope with excess heat. High temperatures do damage our health: the heat wave in June of this year likely caused 600 deaths. (1) High temperatures and lack of rain damages both crops and livestock. 84% of UK farmers have reported reduced crop yields. (2) With many other countries on whom we rely for food imports similarly affected, rises in food prices and shortages are inevitable.

Rising temperatures should not be seen as a means of getting a suntan, but treated as real risks that need to be addressed if we care for people’s (and other living things’) wellbeing both here and world wide.