Second Quarter 2010
59
Paying the Piper
BY JOEL B. SMITH
Coping With the Consequences
of Climate Change
of $30 billion a year (ratcheting up to $100 billion a year by 2020) from
rich countries to use both for reducing emissions in poor countries and
to help them to adapt to the climate changes that do take place.
To be sure, this so-called Copenhagen Accord doesn't carry the weight
of an international treaty because the participants only "took note" of the
deal. But having secured the cooperation of the United States, the richest
nation on the globe, along with the likely cooperation of the European
Union and other developed countries, it's a start and a good moment to
get up to speed on the big questions faced by policymakers in building an
adaptation strategy.
why focus on developing countries?
Most poor countries are relatively close to the Equator. And all the sci-
ence suggests that the climate in the tropics will warm less than it will