The Urgency of Climate Adaptation (New York Law Journal)
New York Law Journal, December 11, 2018
The Urgency of Climate Adaptation
Stephen L. Kass is the Chair of the City Bar’s Task Force on Climate Adaptation
“The nations of the world, including the United States, have gathered in Katowice, Poland for the last two weeks to urge each other to do more than pretend to address climate change….What is needed, in short, is a reliable multi-year source of increased adaptation funds that is not dependent either on annual appropriations by donor governments or short-term private sector investment decisions. As indicated in previous columns, I believe the best way to secure those funds on an on-going dedicated basis is through a small charge (amounting to a few basis points) on all international financial transactions, as recommended by the New York City Bar Association’s Task Force on Climate Adaptation three years ago. All proceeds from such a charge, which could be imposed by the G-20 countries (or even their major clearinghouse banks), would be dedicated to either the GCF, the Adaptation Fund or a comparable World Bank or other facility and used solely for climate adaptation programs of the sort described above, but scaled up to meet the foreseeable demand for such assistance over the next 25 years.”
