What does colonialism have to do with climate change?

When flooding amplified by climate change began to submerge a sizable portion of Pakistan recently, a remnant of the country’s colonial past stood between the deluge and hundreds of thousands of people: the Sukkur Barrage.

It wasn’t certain that the 90-year-old diversion dam, a onetime engineering triumph designed by local British rulers but since cited for safety issues and described as “decrepit”, would endure – making it a potentially fatal burden and a symbol of the corrosive impact of colonialism on much of the world.

The dam held, despite Pakistan’s “monsoon on steroids”. Other outcomes have been less fortunate. A German non-profit’s list of the 10 countries most affected by climate change-related extreme weather events during the first two decades of this century includes eight former colonies (one isn’t technically a country and remains a US territory sometimes described as a colony).

Clearly, one part of the world was exploited for the other’s gain, helping set each up for very different experiences as the climate crisis worsens.

Awareness of this dynamic seems to be growing. The IPCC, a panel of leading scientists that’s issued closely watched reports on climate change since 1990, explicitly mentioned “colonialism” for the first time earlier this year. The practice left behind “development challenges” that heighten vulnerability to climate impacts, it said.

One thing shared by many former colonies disproportionately impacted by climate change: a relatively small carbon footprint. Pakistan is responsible for about one megatonne of emissions per capita annually, compared with well over four in the UK, and more than 13 in the US.

In a recent interview, Pakistan’s climate change minister noted this limited emissions contribution, and cited “historic injustices” in many countries located near the equator that are now paying a price for “other peoples’ reckless carbon consumption”.

In 2009, wealthy nations committed to raising $100 billion annually by 2020 to help less-wealthy counterparts - many of them once colonized - fight climate change. But the effort fell short.

The British Raj, which included present-day Pakistan, is far from the only historical example of an exploitative colonial presence.

Another curious case: the “filibusters”, or private mercenaries who ventured from the US into Latin America in the 19^th century to seize land, sometimes with support from back home. William Walker, a lawyer from Tennessee, managed to install himself as president of Nicaragua and win official US recognition of his regime in 1856 before being executed by a firing squad.

There was also the intensive colonization of Africa by European countries in the 19^th century. Belgian King Leopold II seized what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo as his private property, for example, and proceeded to extract its rubber in a way that cost millions of lives.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, among the poorest nations in the world, offered up the rights to drill for oil and gas in its old-growth rainforests earlier this year – raising serious concerns about the potential impact on global climate progress.

Leaving money on the table to contribute to that progress is a luxury not everyone can afford, the country’s climate representative seemed to say in an interview. “Our priority is not to save the planet,” he added.

Working together to put post-colonial countries on a more solid climate footing will require navigating sensitive issues related to accountability, sovereignty, and basic fairness.

One means of addressing the disparity might be through reparations.

A UK politician recently called for paying exactly that type of financial compensation to Pakistan, which she noted has been dealing not just with catastrophic floods but also spiraling inflation.

Most modelling for such reparations involves paying amounts in addition to the annual $100 billion once promised to developing countries (a scheme that may yet come together).

Meanwhile there may be other, more contemporary versions of colonialism that these countries must concern themselves with.

“Green” colonialism, for example, or efforts to boost sustainability that end up hurting marginalized groups like Indigenous people, has been cited in a number of places around the world.

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