Gordon Brown says China must pay into climate fund for poor countries

China must pay into a new fund for poor countries stricken by climate-driven disaster on the basis of its high greenhouse gas emissions and large economy, the former UK prime minister Gordon Brown has said.

“America and Europe will have to provide most, but China will have to contribute more too,” he told the Guardian.

Last week, at the Cop27 UN climate summit, rich governments finally agreed to a fund for poor countries suffering the impact of extreme weather, known as “loss and damage”. But there is no agreement yet on how to fill that fund, and it is likely to be the subject of bitter fighting this year.

Brown wrote in Saturday’s Guardian that poor countries must be entitled to payments from the rich based on the latter’s historic greenhouse gas emissions, rather than relying on a “begging bowl”.

“A world addressing an existential challenge should not have to rely on charity,” he writes. “An action plan that requires donors to contribute to climate finance based on their capacity to pay and historic liability for greenhouse gas emissions should be the…