The first meeting of a new climate change committee was held in Isfahan (a major Iranian city) on February 21, 2021, where Iran proposed creating an international fund to tackle climate change. The fund would tax countries based on their pollution output.
The Expediency Council secretary of Tehran, Mohsen Rezaei, stresses that richer countries have an obligation to help poorer ones to lessen climate impacts.
According to the government news agency IRNA, Rezaei said:
Some people in the world say that all countries should reduce greenhouse gas emissions equally, but we cannot simply accept that because we are at the beginning of development.
Rezaei considers China and the US to be the world’s biggest polluters. He suggests that major polluters should be held responsible by “a body independent of the powers and governments” and that “Iran can be the initiator of such an independent international demand and the issue of bio-humanity as an ideal.”
Under the Paris Climate Agreement, which US president Joe Biden has re-entered, richer nations vowed to give poorer ones $100 billion (£73 billion) per year by 2020 to help them fight and adapt to climate change. However, funding has been delayed.
Biden believes there’s no time to waste when it comes to the climate crisis. During his first days in office, Joe Biden;
- Re-entered the Paris climate agreement;
- Revoked the Keystone XL pipeline permit;
- Placed a memorandum on new oil and gas drilling on federal lands until a review of all current leases has been conducted;
- Dove into reviewing actions that rolled back clean air and water protections;
- Instructed the US government to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies;
- Vowed to transform the government’s entire fleet of cars and trucks into electric models;
- and pledged to set a new goal of conserving 30% of American land and oceans by 2030.
Many critics consider Iran to have a poor record on environmental protection and responsibility. It remains one of the world’s largest fossil fuels producers, despite US sanctions that have hindered its ability to sell gas and oil.
