A paradise of privilege that proves money has no bounds if people who have it want to spend it.
Two years ago, the South Pacific islands of Vanuatu bore the brunt of Cyclone Harold’s 185-mile-an-hour winds. The Category 5 cyclone wiped out 60% of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP). It came just as the country was rebuilding from the 2015 Cyclone Pam, which blew away two-thirds of its GDP.
The 83 islands of Vanuatu have the dubious distinction of being the world’s most “at-risk” country for climate change-influenced disasters. But they are not alone. Their South Pacific neighbors, the Caribbean, the Philippines, and other island nations, are staggering from the increasing severity of superstorms. There is increasingly definitive evidence that human-caused climate change contributes to the growing intensity of hurricanes and cyclones.
And it’s only getting worse. One study shows that climate loss and damage costs will rise to more than $1 trillion per year in 2050.
The escalating cycle of cyclone destruction makes it impossible for Vanuatu to make economic headway. In less than 10 years, Vanuatu has suffered more than a billion dollars in cyclone-related damages from just these two storms. Yet, relief has been scant. Wealthier nations from the Global North have contributed less than 10% for repairs.
In less than 10 years, Vanuatu has suffered more than a billion dollars in cyclone-related damages from just these two storms.
Suing for damages
Last week, Vanuatu hoped it could change that when it won a symbolic vote at the United Nations. The General Assembly did not object to Vanuatu’s effort to get the UN International Court of Justice to rule on the legal responsibility of governments to fight the climate crisis. Vanuatu argues that climate change has become a human rights issue for Pacific Islanders. “We’re constantly in a state of recovery in response to climate disasters,” says Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu’s climate change minister.
Yet despite repeated pledges and declarations, the developed and emerging nations are no closer to agreeing on how much more developed countries should pay for storm damages. The Global South argues it should be a lot more because most of the carbon emitted into the air comes from the industries and lifestyles of Northern nations.
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Despite public sympathies to the plight of the South, developed nations seem to have little appetite for the kind of significant wholesale financial changes advocated by such influential Global South voices as Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados. Witness the extraordinary double talk last week from the U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. Despite telling U.S. lawmakers that she wants a reformed World Bank to vastly expand lending to fight climate change, she rejected the idea of a near-term capital increase for the World Bank to do just that.
Money talks
Yellen’s reluctance to pull out the checkbook reflects a private consensus that the richer North is neither ready nor has the political will to make payments that, to many, smack of intensely unpopular “reparations.” Rich countries have also not come close to living up to a promise to deliver $100 billion a year in climate aid to low and middle-income companies. “The World Bank has agreed to direct 35% of its financing to climate-related projects by 2025; isn’t that enough?” said one banker.
Rich countries have also not come close to living up to a promise to deliver $100 billion a year in climate aid to low and middle-income companies.
$12 million paradise of privilege
The issue is not just money. It is who gets it. Look no further than a children’s playing field in New York City. Last week, as the UN politely applauded Vanuatu, a dozen Little League baseball players tossed the ball around at a public field in downtown Manhattan that is just across the street from the world headquarters of Goldman Sachs.
But this is not just any baseball field. The Battery Park playing field is a proud little paradise of privilege that proves money has no bounds if people who have it want to spend it.
A little over a decade ago, the 80,000 square-foot field was severely damaged when Superstorm Sandy smashed New York City. Since then, and under pressure from the neighborhood’s influential residents, the state spent more than $10 million for various climate-related renovations to the field, including a $5 million, 800-foot steel wall that wraps around the playing field.
Climate “amuse bouche”
At best, a few hundred children use the field on any given day. But these are not just ordinary children. The average family income of the parents cheering from the sidelines is $500,000. They live in apartments in the neighborhood that cost on average $3 million.
But the ball field is just an amuse-bouche for the affluent of Lower Manhattan. To protect the area, their apartments, and their lifestyles, the city and state also plan $221 million in flood prevention in the neighborhood. That is part of a broader $2.1 billion flood project to protect New York City and an even bigger $60 billion federal climate resilience project for New York Harbor.
No one would blame these residents for wanting the best protection man can buy. But their safety comes at the expense of someone else. And that has a profound social impact.
No one would blame these residents for wanting the best protection man can buy. But their safety comes at the expense of someone else. And that has a profound social impact.
Lower Manhattan versus Vanuatu
Let’s compare the social and health of the citizens of Lower Manhattan with those of Vanuatu. In Vanuatu, 40% live in poverty. In Lower Manhattan, less than 9%. The obesity and diabetes rates in Vanuatu are 33% and 15%. In Tribeca and Battery Park, it is 4% and 3%. The infant mortality rate in Vanuatu is 20 per thousand compared to 3 per thousand in Lower Manhattan.
These sobering statistics illustrate a reality that both Adam Smith and Karl Marx could agree on: the goal of an economy is to provide for the material needs of society, and they both assumed that, for the most part, humans acted in their own self-interest.
For Vanuatu, it is clear whose self-interest is prevailing. “Huge sums of our national wealth are being erased by climate extremes,” says Christopher Bartlett, who works on climate diplomacy for Vanuatu. The residents of New York are determined that this will not happen to their beloved city or themselves.
