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If one accepts that every individual has an inherently equal share of (or stake in) the global atmosphere, people in wealthy nations are using up far more than their fair share of the global atmospheric carbon budget. In doing so, and by not paying for the consequences of global warming, rich countries are running up huge ecological debts to the poor, majority world.
So far, the international response to climate change has failed to fully account for this ecological debt. Action has been confined by the limited ambitions of the Kyoto Protocol and the failure of governments to even stick to that. Many well-intentioned campaigners, policy advisors and scientists have been drawn into the bureaucratic framework of the Protocol, losing sight of the pressing need to deliver radical reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions that are both politically feasible and allow for poor countries to meet their citizen’s human development needs.
The policy implications of ecological debt suggest a fundamental realignment of power and responsibility between nations. The concept turns upside down both the debates on poor country debt and global warming. It puts poor people and poor countries on the international moral high ground, and in the strongest position to argue for a better deal.
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