Developing countries need climate justice, not debt Policeman30
As a researcher working in sustainability and labour-intensive sectors like fashion and textiles, I see every day how climate impacts are worsening in regions that have contributed the least historical emissions (COP30 mitigating agreements won’t do much for ecosystem at tipping point, November 22). In India, high temperatures, unpredictable rainfall and water scarcity have disrupted cotton cultivation, small textile clusters and clothing production centres. These communities are expected to adapt and decarbonize, but they receive almost no real support that would make such a transition viable.
The gap between what developing countries need and what is currently on offer is not only a financial gap, but also a structural gap resulting from uneven development. Treating climate finance as a loan-based obligation rather than a shared responsibility undermines the idea of a just transition. Religion cannot be the path to climate change resilience in the Global South.
A credible transformation will require grant-based funding, accessible technology, and long-term partnerships that build local capacity. Countries like India are already expanding renewable energy much more rapidly than historical emitters did during their industrial rise. What we seek is not charity. We seek justice consistent with science, history, and the Paris Agreement. Climate ambition must finally be grounded in climate justice.
Nirbhay Rana
Gurugram, India
George Monbiot’s opinion piece on climate data (There’s a Catastrophic Black Hole in Our Climate Data – A Gift for Deniers, November 21) echoes what Deepak Varuvel Dennison revealed about AI in his long article (What AI Doesn’t Know: We May Be Creating a Global ‘Cognitive Meltdown’, November 18): that invaluable data from the world outside the US and English-speaking countries is being ignored or marginalized. In this way, vital local knowledge, experience and wisdom are lost.
As Monbiot emphasizes, this distortion of data has enormous consequences for addressing climate change and our overall concept of reality. Unfortunately, we see the same skew in news coverage reflected in the mainstream media. This dominance will become more evident as the use of artificial intelligence expands. It is essential that this distortion in data sources is recognized and corrected if we are to maintain a meaningful and truly representative conception of reality and thus be able to make effective decisions.
John Green
London