In his article “Rich Nations Vowed Billions for Climate Change. Poor Countries Are Waiting”, Mike Ives describes how rich nations still have yet to assist poorer countries with climate change issues like they promised. This is relevant to simulation topic of climate change because it describes how climate change agreements to assist LDCs can sometimes be broken by MDCS.
In 2009, industrialized nations pledged to donate $100 billion a year by 2020 to help poorer nations deal with climate change. Only $3.5 billion out of $10.3 billion promised has actually been given to the Green Climate Fund. A United Nations Climate change meeting in Bangkok will be followed by a Poland meeting in December, where countries will formulate rules to help carry out the Paris Agreement. The lack of funding discussed at the Bangkok meeting has made people pessimistic about the Poland meeting. The article states that political scientists are horrified by the United States position on this issue, as they have not given nearly was much as they promised under the Trump administration. Furthermore, there are disagreements on how much money is actually being spent to fight climate change in poorer countries. Critics of the Green Climate Fund feel that instead of money being funneled through large development banks, it should instead be given directly to the governments. The article ends by explaining how Southeast Asia is particularly vulnerable to climate change.
This article is significant because it highlights how not enough is being done by developed nations to assist the countries most vulnerable to climate change.
Ives, Mike. “Rich Nations Vowed Billions for Climate Change. Poor Countries are Waiting.” The New York Times, 9 Sept. 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/09/world/asia/green-climate-fund-global-warming.html