Naomi Klein at the Klima Forum Part 3 of 4. Copenhagen

Copenhagen, Dec 8, 2009.

This video continues on climate dept theme. Excerpt: "So how do you repay a debt like that? Well the position of the Bolivian government, and they have backing from the coalition of least developed countries as well as other countries, is that it's very clear. You pay this debt in three ways - One: through very deep emission cuts. By creating atmospheric space, freeing up atmospheric space for those countries that have emitted the least and need some of that cheap fuel in order to develop. So it's not about just splitting the difference the way it's been formulated here, 'we'll cut some, poor countries will cut some', it's about rich nations cutting very very deeply in response to this historical debt, the fact that we have taken up so much more of our share of a limited resource. There is a global carbon budget, and we are way over it."

"The other way you pay a debt is you pay it, you pay it with money, and there's two areas in which we need to pay it. One is helping countries adapt to the realities of climate change that is already underway. That means responding to droughts, that means building flood walls. That just is the direct response to the way in which the climate is already changing. The world bank estimates that developing countries are facing costs of a hundred billion dollars a year just adapting to current climate change. We can debate those numbers, it's the world banks so we can assume it is low. A team of uN scientists added what it would cost not just to respond to the reality of climate change, but to leapfrog over fossil fuels and adopt green technologies, green energy, and they put that figure at 500 to 600 billion dollars a year. So it's a lot, but still, not coming anywhere near the levels of funding that the banks got."
Naomi Klein gave the opening address at the Klima Forum. Unlike the COP15, which had limited access and in fact expelled the majority of NGO representatives half way through the forum, the Klima Forum was open to everyone. Here Naomi Klein discusses many topics as they relate to climate change, including Obama, hope, and the meaning of a "climate debt".

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