Polluters must pay: how COP29 can help

With legislation to tax polluters and make them pay for past pollution, the climate change conference can advance measures that hold polluters responsible, writes environmental sociologist Llewellyn Leonard.

- Llewellyn Leonard

"At the time of going to print, the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29) was already under way in Azerbaijan. The annual climate change conference must focus on holding corporations and countries accountable for greenhouse gas emissions. The 'polluter pays' principle has been a key part of climate discussions for years. It says a polluter should bear the costs of managing its pollution, to prevent damage to human health and the environment. The principle is widely accepted in theory but hasn't been put into practice consistently, or enforced: many of the largest polluters continue to operate with little or no financial consequence for the damage they cause.

Many countries, especially developing ones, have been left to bear the costs of climate adaptation and mitigation, despite being the least responsible for global emissions. COP29 will have to show more political will and commitment to achieve the drastic emission reductions needed to limit global warming. The stakes have never been higher. The world is heating up rapidly. On 17 November 2023, the global temperature exceeded 2°C above pre-Industrial Revolution levels for the first time ever in modern recorded history.

Failing to stop all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050 could cost the African continent US$50 billion (about R885 billion) annually. It is also expected to cause some 250,000 deaths a year globally between 2030 and 2050. Africa would be badly affected.

From my perspective as a professor of environmental science who has researched fossil fuel pollution and its impact on communities in South Africa, I believe that COP29 could robustly advance measures that hold polluters responsible for their emissions. Taxing polluters, making polluters pay for past pollution, and creating space for courts to award climate damages are some measures COP29 should agree to.

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