The News
As climate diplomats gather in Baku for this year’s UN COP29 climate conference, the question of who pays, and how much, for climate change is at the fore.
Developing countries — which also tend to be the most susceptible to climate change and extreme weather — are pushing for developed countries to pool together $1 trillion a year for a UN climate fund to help these smaller economies adapt. Experts say that while there has been some progress in the last decade, financing levels are still far below the amount needed — and not everyone is paying their fair share.
SIGNALS
Global climate finance is far below necessary levels
Source: DW
Globally, about $1.5 trillion flowed into climate-related projects between 2022 and 2023, according to DW — double the amount spent between 2019 and 2020. Still, that is just one fifth of what was invested in fossil fuel subsidies, the Climate Policy Initiative told DW, and accounts for just 1% of global GDP. Most of the funding was spent in highly-developed and emerging economies, climate finance analysts said, rather than in the developing countries most susceptible to climate change disaster. Current funding is “nothing when we are talking about 8 to 9 trillion [dollars] in need between 2030 and 2050,” a Climate Policy analyst said.
China’s climate contributions are bigger than reported
Sources: Reuters, Lowy Institute, The Atlantic
One of the biggest goals at COP this year is to get rapidly-developing countries — particularly China — to begin contributing to the UN climate fund. Beijing opposes the idea and has argued that long-industrilized nations like the UK and US have more of a responsibility. But China is in fact a major contributor — however its government’s tendency to bureaucracy and secrecy means there’s little official reporting on Beijing’s initiatives, according to Australia’s Lowy Institute. China makes up about 14% of all climate financing in Southeast Asia, Lowy estimates, particularly in renewable energy infrastructure. But compared to other partners, “China’s financing terms also tend to be less generous,” leaving debt as a major concern. That said, the incoming Trump administration in the US could push China into becoming more of a world leader on climate finance, The Atlantic wrote.
Climate activists cry foul at rich countries’ aid programs
Source: CarbonBrief
While high-income countries reportedly met the last UN financing goal to raise $100 billion in climate aid for developing countries in 2022 — two years behind schedule — activists have suggested that the true figure is likely much lower. About $27 billion may have come from existing development aid, going against the UN expectation that the climate aid should be “new and additional,” according to climate activism news site Carbon Brief. Skewing these figures would allow developed countries to reach their climate targets without actually spending more money.