Wealthier countries promised nearly $9.8 billion over the next four years to an international fund to help poorer nations develop cleanly and adapt to climate stresses, with nearly a dozen nations doubling their previous commitments.
The total was slightly higher than the $9.3 billion committed to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) at its first pledging conference in 2014, and came despite the absence of commitments by previous major donors such as the United States. Climate finance analysts welcomed the stepped-up pledges — 11 of the 27 donor governments doubled their previous commitments — but said the totals were not rising as fast as the climate-change threats poor nations must deal with.
“It’s quite clear we have governments all over the world declaring climate emergencies, and far more finance from all sources is needed to adequately address the challenge,” said Joe Thwaites, a finance researcher with the US-based World Resources Institute.
In its first five years the fund received total promises of a little over $10 billion.
But because the United States, under President Donald Trump, reneged on two-thirds of its initial $3 billion pledge, and currency values changed, it effectively had only $7.2 billion to spend, said Yannick Glemarec, its executive director. The new commitments, if fulfilled, will effectively give it 70 per cent more money to spend each year, with additional pledges likely in coming months, he said.
The funding is still a drop in the ocean compared with the estimated $3 trillion to $7 trillion a year needed to shift the world’s economy onto a more sustainable and climate-friendly path, Glemarec said.
But if used to show what is possible in developing nations and cut risks for private investors there, it could help spur the much larger investments needed to make that shift, he said.
“We are very excited because we should be able to prevent a lot of climate hurt” with the additional funds, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. The GCF so far has allocated about $5.2 billion to 111 projects in 99 countries.
They range from green, low-cost housing in Mongolia’s polluted
capital and a methane-fuelled rapid-transit bus system in Karachi to restoring climate-threatened ecosystems in Namibia.
The GCF has committed to spend half of its funding on efforts to help poorer countries adapt to climate threats, which rarely attract significant private or government finance.
Most of the donors making fresh contributions came from Europe, though New Zealand, South Korea, Japan and Canada also committed funds, with New Zealand and South Korea pledging to double previous donations.
“This is a good start but in no way adequate to meet the needs on the ground,” said Wendel Trio, director of Climate Action Network Europe, saying he hoped more pledges would come.
The fund will remain open for additional contributions throughout its next term, GCF officials said.
Thwaites said Belgium was expected to commit to doubling its previous $100-million pledge to the fund in coming months, and Mexico had attended this week’s pledging conference in Paris too.
Gas-rich Qatar, at the UN Secretary-General’s climate summit in New York last month, pledged $100 million to help least-developed countries and struggling small islands cope with climate threats, Thwaites said.
The money was not intended for the GCF but shows issues affecting poorer states “are on their radar”, he said.
Stepped-up GCF funding is considered key to encouraging poorer nations to boost the ambition of their national targets to hold the line on emissions and better adapt to climate threats, finance experts said.
Laurie Goering
— Thomson Reuters Foundation
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
