Do polluters pay, or do they get paid?

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.7 • 9.5K Ratings

🗓️ 27 June 2024

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For years, rich nations have sent money to lower-income countries to help deal with the impacts of climate change. But it turns out, these wealthy nations are finding creative ways to funnel some of that financing back into their own economies. Today, we look at how the climate crisis is reviving a debate over how money should flow from rich to less-rich nations.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	NPR. Several years ago the city of Geaquille Ecuador opened a new aerial tramway.
0:17.0	This is a system of floating gondolas that travels between Gea Keel and a neighbouring city.
0:23.0	The tramway was pitched as a way to reduce emissions
0:26.0	because people would ride the gondolas instead of driving.
0:29.0	And the expectation was that 40,000 passengers would use a system every day.
0:34.0	But that number turned out to be closer to 8,000 people a day.
0:38.8	A television news program called El Dorsey recently dispatched a correspondent to check out the tramway.
0:44.4	We're on the station.
0:45.4	Ullian Coronel?
0:47.4	Much worse.
0:51.4	Anchor and the correspondent are saying there's no one here.
0:55.0	The reporter ends up riding one of the gondolas by himself.
0:58.0	I gotta say it's not like the most riveting broadcast.
1:00.6	What do they call it long television where you just kind of watch and chill out.
1:05.0	This is vibes.
1:08.0	And for this relaxing experience, the city government borrowed almost $120 dollars from France for the project.
1:15.4	A French company also helped build the system so Gaya Kiel ended up borrowing money from France
1:21.3	to pay a French company for gondolas that may not be cutting emissions
1:26.0	by that much given the low ridership.
1:29.6	This is the indicator from Planet Money.
1:31.3	I'm Darien Woods., I'm Darren Woods.
1:32.8	And I'm Whelan Wong.
	...

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