Climate Change Reparations?

Oxfam believes the world's industrial giants should begin paying tens of billions of dollars a year in reparations for climate change damage being sustained in the Third World. From Financial Times:

"The US should pay $22bn a year to developing countries to help them to adapt to the effects of climate change, according to a calculation published on Monday by the charity Oxfam.

"Japan should pay about $6.5bn, Germany about $3.5bn a year and the UK at least $2.5bn a year in order to give developing countries the aid they need. Other countries, such as European Union member states and Australia, should pay between $1.5bn and $2.5bn in climate change reparations, or “compensatory finance”, said Kate Raworth, senior researcher at Oxfam and author of the report.

"Oxfam said it would cost about $50bn a year for developing countries to build sea and other defences needed to handle problems caused by climate change.

"Ms Raworth said: 'This is not about aid, it is about the world’s biggest and richest polluters covering the costs forced upon those who are most vulnerable – an entirely separate and added responsibility [to conventional overseas development aid or disaster relief].'”