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2020 deadline missed, developed countries now hope to deliver $100 bn climate finance by 2023

‘Climate Delivery Plan’ released ahead of UN climate change conference (COP26) outlines agenda & timetable for developed countries to deliver monetary help to low-income nations.

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New Delhi: The UK COP26 Presidency released the ‘Climate Delivery Plan’ Monday, outlining an agenda and a timetable for developed countries to deliver $100 billion worth of monetary help to low-income countries to manage the climate crisis. 

The $100 billion package was supposed to have been delivered by 2020, with developed countries contributing the same amount every year for a period of five years, until 2025. The latest Climate Delivery Plan, however, suggests developed countries may not be able to drum up $100 billion before 2023 — three years after the original deadline. 

A foreword to the plan by Jonathan Wilkinson, Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change, and Jochen Flasbarth, Germany’s State Secretary at the Ministry for Environment, reads: “Over the past several months, we have heard rising concerns that the US$100 billion goal was not met in 2020. We share the disappointment about this. Even though final figures for 2020 are not available yet, it is becoming clear that developed countries will not have mobilised US$100 billion jointly by that year.”

The foreword adds that, according to pledges made until 20 October 2021, developed countries are expected to meet the goal by 2023, and surpass it every year — touching nearly $120 billion by 2025, if everything goes to plan. 

Significantly, though developed countries could not meet the goal on time, the period for which they have to finance climate management for low-income countries has not yet been extended. The funds are expected to help developing nations with climate mitigation, such as scaling up renewable energy sources, and climate adaptation, which includes coping with adverse effects of a changing climate. 

So far, 18 out of the 23 developed countries that had initially agreed to supply the $100 billion have made fresh pledges double/increase the amount previously pledged ahead of COP26, the UN Climate Change Conference, where climate finance is expected to play a central role in negotiations. These countries are Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, the European Commission, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. 

The Climate Delivery Plan noted that “some additional pledges from developed countries are expected this year but were not yet ready to be included in the analysis at the time of publishing. These additional pledges would further increase the projections above”.


Also read: India to suffer more intense heat waves, heavier rainfall in future decades, IPCC report says


Developed countries only contributed $79.6 billion by 2019

The $100 billion goal had been originally decided upon in 2009, at the COP15, with the intention of supporting developing countries to cope with climate mitigation and adaptation. The goal was reaffirmed and extended in 2015, at COP21, to mobilise the finance from 2020 to 2025. In 2016, developed countries came up with a roadmap to achieve the $100 billion goal by 2020.

But by 2019, developed countries had contributed only $79.6 billion towards climate finance for low-income countries, the latest data shows. Data for how much money was mobilised in 2020 is not available yet, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), tasked with tracking these transactions.

“More than US$20 billion annual increase would be required to meet the US$100 billion goal in 2020. While it will not be known until 2022 whether the US$100 billion goal has been met in 2020, recent trends show that it appears unlikely,” says the Climate Delivery Plan.

The Plan also makes a list of “collective actions” developed nations need to take in order to deliver on their promise, which includes more developed nations coming forward and making fresh pledges, as well as removing barriers in accessing the funds.

$100 billion could be inadequate

An assessment by the Standing Committee on Finance under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) — the body organising the COP26 — has found that developing nations actually need to put up much more than $100 billion to meet climate goals. 

According to the assessment, reported by Carbon Copy, developing nations need between $5.8 trillion to $5.9 trillion every year till 2030 to achieve less than half of their climate goals under the Paris Agreement adopted in 2015. 

The $100 billion promise also excludes finance for loss and damage due to climate change — a major topic of contention between developed and developing countries. The latter are demanding additional support for bearing the brunt of climate change spurred majorly by the activities of developed nations. 

(Edited by Paramita Ghosh)


Also read: India among 15 countries whose fossil fuel production exceeds Paris Agreement goals: UN report


 

 

 

 

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