In 2010 Colombia suffered its most devastating floods in 40 years. (Flickr Creative Commons/Mr. Faco)

Consider this: the United States has contributed 28.75 percent of historical, cumulative greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, while all Central and South American nations combined have only contributed 3.58 percent. And that, although the population of Latin America is nearly double that of the United States.

Of course, the tricky thing about climate change is that we all share the same atmosphere and the same planet. So, even though Central and South American nations can rightly claim that they didn’t start the fire, they’re now being bombarded with all manner of smoke and smoldering embers.

Thus are the findings of a new report released by Earthjustice’s partner in international law, the Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA). The report, Principal Human Rights Impacts of Climate Change in Latin America, was presented by AIDA last week to the delegates at the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Durban, South Africa.

(Earthjustice attorney Erika Rosenthal is attending the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Durban, South Africa. This is the second in a series of blogs she will be filing from the conference.)

Fairness isn’t a philosophical or academic question here in Durban. Deep divisions on the question of equity – between the developed and developing world; between the US and China; between the most vulnerable countries and the major emitting countries north and south (a.k.a. the US, China, India and Brazil) – have stalled the climate negotiations for years.