Sliced: Time to Get Our Freaking Priorities Straight

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By Jay Tipton – Head, Climate Finance and Business Development

Over the weekend, I was catching up on some sports news. A headline caught my eye – Indiana University football coach Tom Allen will be getting paid $15.5 million dollars. To be sacked.

Yes, Allen will be receiving $15.5 million dollars from the Indiana Hoosiers to not be the head coach. This $15.5 million is the buyout amount in his contract, exercised in the case that the university decides to part ways with the coach, which they just opted to do. Mind you, $15.5 million dollars is actually an agreed-upon reduced price from what Allen was owed, down from $20.4 million dollars. This. Is. INSANE.

So, I decided to dig a bit more. Oh, baby, it gets better…

Earlier this year, Texas A&M fired head football coach Jimbo Fisher. The price tag to relieve him of his duties? $75 million dollars. The first glorious transaction to hit Fisher’s bank account will be $19 million, due within 60 days of termination. After that, he will giggle in delight as millions more are deposited annually. Hot damn, it pays to not work!

A quick look at the contracts of a handful of head coaches at top college football schools around the country, reveals that collectively they would be owed $585.5 million in the situation that they receive the boot. I could go more into detail on these contracts, and the recent buyout histories of these universities, but I think the point is made – that’s a ton of money.

He is another number for you – $100 billion.

This is the amount of climate finance that rich, developed nations around the world agreed to jointly pay into a climate fund for poor, developing countries to help mitigate and adapt to climate change (the same countries that have contributed the least to global warming and are simultaneously suffering the most devastation because of it).

The financial agreement came at COP21 in 2015. The payment was due each year running from 2020 to 2025. The first $100 billion payment payable to poor countries in 2020 wasn’t received until 2022. That’s not quite the net-60 payment schedule that Fisher enjoyed after he lost his job.

And that $100 billion number? It’s completely arbitrary.

The OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) estimates that by 2025, developing countries will need around $1 trillion each year in climate finance. That amount will then need to increase to $2.4 trillion annually until 2030. So, the $100 billion is a drop in the bucket of what is needed and simply will not cut it.

India alone will need $101 billion in extra climate finance to align with a net-zero scenario suggested by the International Energy Agency (IEA).

The 2022 flood (induced by global warming) that shattered Pakistan, and killed over 1,700 people, will cost the country around $30 billion. On the whole, Pakistan has contributed less than 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions. So, unlike Allen or Fisher, Pakistanis aren’t getting paid to do absolutely nothing. On the contrary, they are paying even though they’ve done absolutely nothing. This dichotomy is INFURIATING!

Now let me be blunt – what the heck are our priorities? It is time to get them straight.

2023 will likely go down as the hottest year on record. Models indicate that 2024 could be even hotter. The climate crisis is raining floods, fires, droughts, and mega-disasters down upon our heads, yet our leaders fail to activate the much-needed climate finance to help their people and neighbors – all the while American football coaches are laughing their unemployed tails to the bank.

I simply cannot wrap my head around this. Can you?

Leaders at COP28 have the opportunity to increase climate finance from billions to trillions, the necessary scale. Although COP28 received a score of 3.9 out of 10 from BloombergNEF for its progress towards the Paris Agreement goals, I remain optimistic. In contrast to last weekend when I was taken aback by headlines detailing millions of dollars being spent on nothing, I am hopeful that this weekend’s review of news will bring pleasantly surprising and positive headlines about climate finance heading in the correct direction. Unfortunately, geopolitical history doesn’t inspire confidence.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely appreciate the value of sports. They contribute significantly to human experience in many different ways. Personally, I’ve played sports throughout my entire life and continue to do so regularly today. However, it’s important to consider tactically that on a scorched earth, sports may no longer be possible. The simple fact is that if we can come up with the money for a $75 million sports contract buyout to do nothing, we can also come up with the $100 billion necessary to save our world. We just need to get our priorities straight.

By the way, no disrespect to Allen, Fisher, or any other coach who got sacked and then paid. They seized on opportunities to hit the jackpot. And hit it, they did. Now it’s time for poorer, developing countries to have a shot at opportunity in our carbon constrained world.