Campaigners Demand Climate Compensation for Poorer Countries
Local climate justice activists, Bexhill and Hastings Global Justice Now (BHGJN), led a Walk of Witness around Bexhill town centre on Thursday 22 September. They stopped outside town centre churches, the Buddhist Centre and the Mosque, and finished at the Town Hall. The activists called on the UK government to help set up an international climate compensation fund, and to raise money for it by taxing fossil fuel companies.
Barbara Echlin from BHGJN said, “To those who question why we should pay into such a fund we respond: if someone damaged our car we would expect them to pay for it. Countries like Pakistan face huge financial strain because of climate change which we have caused with our historic carbon emissions. We are on this Walk of Witness today because we want our grandchildren to inherit a planet they can live on.”
The national day of action was organised by the Make Polluters Pay coalition, involving organisations such as Global Justice Now, Christian Aid, Faith for the Climate, Cafod, Green Christian, Stamp Out Poverty, Oxfam and the Loss and Damage Youth Coalition. The protest was part of a national day of action that also saw actions take place in Cambridge, Edinburgh, London, Lancaster, Nottingham, Portsmouth and Rotherham.
Climate vulnerable countries, such as small island states, have long argued that a ‘loss and damage’ compensation
fund is necessary to help them rebuild after climate disasters, and that rich countries (who have contributed the
most to global warming) should pay for it.
Just five energy companies (Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP, Shell and Total) made £50 billion in profit between April and June this year due to high energy prices. Because these companies have collectively contributed more than 10% of global historic carbon emissions, campaigners say that some of those profits should go towards an international loss and damage fund to compensate countries facing climate disasters.
Youth activists including Vanessa Nakate and Greta Thunberg have previously talked about the need for rich countries to support proposals for loss and damage at UN climate talks. However, richer countries such as the US, UK and EU nations have been accused of blocking these proposals and refusing to accept their historic responsibility for global warming.
• For further information contact: Barbara Echlin, [email protected], or call 01424 219788.
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