Nobel Prize in Economics: rich countries have a “moral debt” to the poor of US$500,000 million.

Rich countries have a “moral debt” annually of US$ 500,000 million with impoverished countries, says French Nobel Prize winner Esther Duflo, who proposes that rich countries assume their responsibility for climate change through two rates.

“It’s what I call a moral debt. It’s not what it would cost to adapt, it’s not what it would cost to attenuate [el cambio climático]. It’s what we must”, declared the economist in an interview with the Financial Times on Monday, based on the effects of climate change on mortality in poor countries.

“There will be enormous damageDuflo added, drawing on a study led by the Global Impact Lab in 2020 that shows that the number of heat-related deaths could increase in impoverished countries this century.

“These damages will be concentrated in poor countries outside the OECD”he added, highlighting the responsibility of rich countries in climate change.

The group of major Western powers G7, made up of Germany, Canada, the United States, France, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom, where 10% of the world’s population lives, emits around 25% of the CO2 linked to the global energy system. , according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

To make her calculation, Esther Duflo is based on the studies of the American economist Michael Greenstone who, based on a monetary value given to one year of life and the effect of global warming on mortality, evaluates the cost of life at US$37. a ton of carbon.

That cost, multiplied by the amount of annual emissions attributable to Europe and the United States, that is, 14,000 million tons of CO2 equivalent, gives a total of US$ 518,000 million.moral debt”according to Duflo.

To cover it, the economist proposes two mechanisms: increasing the minimum tax rate for multinationals and taxing large fortunes.

The climate financial aid that rich countries owe to developing countries is currently $100 billion a year, although that figure is expected to be revised upwards during the UN COP29 summit on climate change, which will take place in Baku in November. .

According to UN experts, developing countries, except China, will need US$2.4 trillion a year until 2030 to adapt to climate change.