Globally, those who have done the least to cause the climate crisis are also the most vulnerable to its impacts. The U.S. has benefited – if highly unevenly – from an economy driven by huge greenhouse gas emissions. It has a moral and legal obligation to support vulnerable people around the world whose rights are being threatened by a crisis not of their own making.
Much of this support should take the form of financial transfers for climate action in poorer countries, as described above – as well as technology transfers and capacity-building. But in addition, money is also needed for communities in these countries to adapt to increasingly severe climate impacts – or as compensation for permanent loss and damage caused by impacts too severe to adapt to.