Wealthy nations should help invest in cheaper, stable clean energy to build infrastructure for a warmer climate.
Low-income countries cannot do this alone. Development banks, climate funds, private investors, and wealthier nations must partner in financing climate adaptation.
This is an investment in global health and stability, not traditional aid.
Wealthy countries have not solved their own cooling challenges. Millions of American and European households struggle with rising bills.
US funding for energy assistance helps only one in six eligible families. But these countries have the economic capacity to address the shortfall.
Helping lower-income countries build reliable electricity is a strategic investment.
If the US and Europe fail to partner, other nations will fill the vacuum, expanding their influence across the developing world.
Climate policy has focused on reducing carbon emissions. That remains important.
But it must also be judged by whether wealthy nations help billions adapt to a hotter planet. In the US and Europe, affordable cooling is a political priority.
In the global south, it is a matter of resources and survival.
The next phase of climate debate must include helping people survive the climate already created.
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Otherwise, the great divide will not be between high and low emitters, but between those with resources to adapt and those without.
