“A paltry sum,” said Chandni Raina, India’s representative at the recent United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan. Ms. Raina was referring to the $300 billion per year wealthy nations have pledged to help developing countries adopt cleaner energy and cope with the effects of climate change. The amount is currently $100 billion per year to increase to the $300 billion by 2035.

Three hundred billion a year sounds like more than a paltry sum, but in light of the challenge faced, it isn’t. According to independent experts, to keep the planet’s average temperature rise under 1.5 degrees Celsius, lower-income countries will need to invest $1.3 trillion per year in their energy transitions, in addition to what they already spend.

But, we might ask, why should the rich countries pay the bill for their poor cousins? And the simple answer, of course, is because they caused the problem. The United States is the major culprit, having put by far the biggest share of greenhouse gasses into our atmosphere, 66 percent more than China and 76 percent more than the European Union.

China has now surpassed the U.S. in emissions per year, twice the amount in fact. But this isn’t the most meaningful way to look at it. Nations don’t pollute, people do, and each American still contributes almost twice the emissions of each Chinese.

Chandni Raina’s India, a poor country, is the most populous nation in the world, yet its emissions are a fraction of those of China or the U.S. At the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, governments agreed that countries bear “common but differentiated responsibilities” to fight climate change.

Some, in other words, should do more than others with wealthier countries having special responsibilities because of their greater emissions historically and currently. The debate about how much each country should contribute to the fund continues with the U.S. and the European Union calling on China and affluent oil-and gas-producing nations such as Saudi Arabia to contribute more.

The advent of Donald Trump as U.S. president is not good news. The fact his country owes the world a major debt for past and present emissions will mean nothing to him. He has spent his life refusing to accept responsibility for his actions as the morass of bankruptcies and lawsuits that define his business career testifies. He can be expected to renege on any commitments negotiated in Baku and withdraw his country from the Paris Agreement as well. The rich nations set 2035 as the target in part so that the U.S. can contribute again once Trump has left office.

And what about Canada? Are we doing our share? We should because we have contributed more to the problem than almost anybody. Our historical emissions per person are slightly higher even than the Americans and seven times as high as the Chinese.

We Canadians, especially we Albertans, have profited mightily from our oil and gas, and continue to do so. Everyone suffers the consequences.