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A man rides through flooded streets in Karachi, Pakistan, during the massive flooding that hit the country in July 2022. (EPA/Yonhap)

A new study has found that developed countries that have emitted excessive greenhouse gasses are liable for US$170 trillion in climate compensation to developing countries by 2050.

South Korea, which is currently one of the world’s top 10 carbon emitters, was shown to be liable for US$2.7 trillion.

Andrew Fanning, a researcher at the Sustainability Research Institute at the UK’s University of Leeds, and others wrote in a paper published in Nature Sustainability on Monday (local time) that developed countries should pay compensation to developing countries to the tune of about US$6 trillion a year.

Nature Sustainability is a monthly scientific journal that focuses on environmental issues and is affiliated with the global academic journal Nature.

The team designed the climate compensation scheme by treating Earth’s atmosphere as a “shared commons” that all people are entitled to, allocating the amount of greenhouse gasses that can be emitted per person to reflect the population of each of the world’s 168 countries, and calculating how much each country has overshot or undershot its “carbon budget” since 1960.

The “carbon budget” is the amount of carbon that humanity can emit to stay within the goal of limiting the global average temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. While most developing countries used less than their allocations, developed countries such as the US, countries in the European Union, Canada and Japan used more than their allocations.

As a result, 67 of the world’s 168 countries, including the US and Russia, are categorized as owing climate compensation. The US owes the most at US$80 trillion. Russia, Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom followed, while South Korea was 13th with US$2.7 trillion. If all countries were to achieve a net zero scenario where all countries decarbonize by 2050 and stay within the 1.5° goal, the total compensation for industrialized countries would be US$170 trillion.

On the other hand, 101 countries, including India, China, Nigeria, and Pakistan, are categorized as receiving climate compensation. China is currently the largest emitter of greenhouse gasses, but due to its large population, it has lower per capita emissions and was eligible to use less of its carbon budget for compensation.

At the 27th United Nations climate change conference, known as COP27, in Egypt that was held in 2022, countries agreed to establish a “climate fund” to compensate developing countries for “loss and damage” caused by climate change, as they have sustained various climate-induced disasters despite being less responsible for climate change.

However, details such as the limits of developed countries’ responsibility and how much each country should contribute to the fund were not decided.

The researchers hope that their findings could provide a methodology for compensating developing countries for their losses and damages.

In an article released by the University of Leeds, Fanning, who led the study, stated, “It is a matter of climate justice that if we are asking nations to rapidly decarbonize their economies, even though they hold no responsibility for the excess emissions that are destabilizing the climate, then they should be compensated for this unfair burden.”

By Nam Jong-young, staff reporter

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