CAMPAIGNERS have condemned “deeply unfair” attempts to “shift blame” for the climate crisis onto middle-income countries including China and India.

Global Justice Now, a British-based NGO campaigning for a just transition to a sustainable world, said today that, while India and China have important climate action to take, rich countries have “a moral and historic obligation to act first.”

The group pointed out that this country’s cumulative historic emissions per capita are 5.5 times higher than those of China and 20 times higher than India’s.

Global Justice Now called for Britain to “build trust” by making emissions cuts of its own, committing to contribute a fair share of climate finance and reforming the global trade system to prevent fossil fuel companies from “suing their way out of climate action.”

Five fossil fuel firms are demanding $18 billion (£13bn) from governments for taking climate action that threatened their profits, Global Justice Now revealed earlier this year.

The companies are suing governments using a system of secret courts built into trade deals such as the Energy Charter Treaty.

Global Justice Now climate campaigner Daniel Willis said: “It’s deeply unfair to blame this crisis on China and India. 

“We in the rich world have built our economies by fuelling the climate crisis, reaping the benefits of carbon emissions while destroying the planet. 

“This is fundamentally our problem to address, but we have repeatedly broken our own climate promises.

“Rather than shifting the blame, countries like the UK need to build trust by making serious real emissions cuts of our own. 

“We must commit to taking a fair share of climate finance for low- and middle-income nations and we need to fundamentally reform the global trade system to prevent big polluters suing their way out of climate action.”