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The world has gathered in Baku, Azerbaijan for the 29th Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29). Countries at the conference came to an agreement on the Baku Climate Unity Pact, which commits developed countries to mobilize $300 billion per year to accelerate the global transition to clean energy. This amount is dwarfed by the estimated $1.3 trillion that developing countries need, and it is because major emitters like China have not stepped up.
Developing nations are not the main contributors to climate change, as they suffer disproportionally in the form of higher crop yield failures, higher cases of malaria and other diseases, increasing water shortages, and more natural disasters. According to the United Nations, the least developed countries account for only 3.3 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. They need help from wealthier nations to cope with its effects.
Taking this into account, the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement stipulated that developed nations should pay a disproportionately higher share of the costs to mitigate climate change. The U.S. has stepped up to the plate, contributing billions of dollars to that effort. We are on track to spend over $10 billion on climate financing in 2024 and are one of 23 high-income countries that committed to financially helping developing countries under COP29.
Despite being one of the world's top two economies, the People's Republic of China (PRC) won designation as a "developing country" in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. This allows it to pay less toward mitigating climate change and potentially even gain access to international funds for that purpose.
At COP29, the PRC continued to weaponize this designation by arguing that only developed countries should be obligated to contribute to climate finance. The PRC needs to "fight back against unreasonable funding demands and avoid taking on excessive responsibilities," according to the Communist Party-sponsored Global Times.
This is simply wrong. The PRC's rapid economic development in the last 30 years has had a significant impact on our planet. China is the world's largest CO2 emitter, producing over a quarter of the world's CO2 emissions according to the World Bank. Yet instead of increasing its commitment to mitigation, China has only covered approximately 6 percent of climate financing between 2013 and 2022.
This is not enough. It needs to commit to mandatory contributions to assist the least developed countries to deal with the impact of climate change.
Developing countries will suffer the most from the effects of climate change while China dodges its responsibility for mitigating the effects of its CO2 emissions.
If the PRC wants superpower status, it needs to act like a true superpower.
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) is the Ranking Member of the United States House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party. He represents Illinois's 8th Congressional District.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
