EDITORIAL: The folly of climate ‘reparations’

When it comes to climate change, the adage “follow the money” applies. The United States and other nations have spent trillions on subsidies on green energy interests in an effort to reduce carbon emissions. Is it any wonder that poorer nations now want a piece of the lucre?

Last week in Egypt, at the 27th session of the Conference of the Parties, an annual climate summit among nations, so-called developing countries aggressively promoted the idea that wealthy nations should pay them reparations for the damage caused by a warming planet. Some of the latter — Scotland, Ireland, Austria, Belgium and Denmark — jumped on board, pledging millions for the cause.

“The burden of climate change globally is falling most heavily on those least responsible for our predicament,” Irish Prime Minister Michael Martin said. “We will not see the change we need without climate justice.”

But what exactly is “climate justice” and who should pay what? These details are murky. But we can get a glimpse of what this really means from Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who showed up at the conference to blame capitalism for all environmental woes and to demand that rich nations “hand over money to poor ones — like his,” Mary Anastasia O’Grady wrote this week in The Wall Street Journal.

Keep in mind that Mr. Maduro is a radical collectivist who — along with his predecessor, Hugo Chavez — has transformed his nation into an economic basket case, all while ensuring that “environmental disaster is the hallmark of Venezuelan socialism,” Ms. O’Grady notes.

In fact, Mr. Maduro, as can be expected, has it precisely wrong. Many problems in poorer nations — such as Venezuela — are self-inflicted thanks to dalliances with misguided political ideologies. The wealth sowed by capitalism and free markets — along with respect for property rights and the sanctity of contracts — is the key to fostering environmental progress. “Countries with an open economy score higher in environmental performance,” concluded a 2016 study published in the journal Sustainability.

Nations that understand this will be better prepared to deal with any necessary climate adaptations.

The ultimate goal of the beggars at the climate summit, of course, is to force American taxpayers to cut regular checks to impoverished nations in the name of fighting global warming — never mind that the country already doles out $56 billion a year in foreign aid.

We trust that Congress has the good sense to resist. Ultimately, the idea of climate “reparations” is as absurd as the United States seeking tribute for the many medical, technological, economic and other advances developed here in the past two centuries that have reduced poverty and raised living standards and life expectancies for people throughout the world.