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A trio of G20 members announced plans to provide $100 billion in
climate finance to developing nations annually ahead of Paris
Agreement signatories' "last-ditch" conference in Glasgow next
week.
In August, the UN's Secretary General António Guterres raised
the stakes for the Paris Agreement parties' upcoming conference by
suggesting an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change study
showed their efforts were inadequate, and they were on track to
fail to prevent the worst impacts of climate change.
The UK minister organizing the United Nations Climate Change
Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Alok Sharma, on 25 October released a delivery plan to
allow rich states to mobilize $100 billion per year in climate
finance for developing countries. Sharma worked alongside German
State Secretary Jochen Flasbarth and Canadian Minister for
Environment and Climate Change Jonathan Wilkinson to create the
plan.
Paris-headquartered group Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development (OECD) provided the countries with data and
analysis in support of their climate finance objectives, as it has
been doing since 2016.
The plan they created describes how new pledges by developed
countries and multilateral development banks are set to make given
amounts of climate finance available to developing countries from
2021 to 2025.
But the figures in the plan don't include additional pledges
from developed countries, which are expected later this year,
Sharma said.
The UK-backed finance plan also suggested new practices to help
deliver more climate adaptation and mitigation funding by
addressing barriers and mobilizing more private finance.
Groundwork
The UK, which is planning to reach net-zero while growing wind power, slashing buildings and industrial emissions, announced
it would increase its climate finance commitments at the
US-convened Leaders Summit on Climate on 22 April.
Ahead of that summit, the UK pledged $16 billion (£11.6 billion)
towards climate finance in developing countries over the next five
years.
The UK in March also barred its export credit agency from
providing new direct support for the fossil fuel sector overseas,
while aiming to realign its export credit finance to "stimulate
green exports."
Finance pledged a decade in the making
The idea of a climate finance fund targeting developing nations
dates back to COP15 in 2009. The promise then became binding as
part of the Cancun Agreements adopted at COP16 that saw countries
agreeing to finance what would grow to reach $100 billion per year
by 2020. They pledged to set a new collective quantified goal from
a floor of $100 billion per year by 2025.
Wealthier counties have been obliged to provide funds to assist
developing countries with mitigation and adaptation since signing
the Paris Agreement in 2015, under Article 9 of the deal. The 36
countries in Europe as well as Japan, Canada, Australia, and the
United States have published a roadmap outlining their initial
climate finance pledges.
For example, the UK initially pledged to provide at least £5.8
billion by 2020, while the US pledged at least $400 million.
Multinational development banks like the European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development, the European Investment Bank, the
Asian Development Bank, and the World Bank also pledged climate
financing help.
The latter pledged an estimated $29 billion annually in combined
direct financing and leveraged co-financing.
It remains to be seen if this satisfies developing nations. A
group of developing nations —led by China and India and known
as the Like Minded Developing Countries—warned developed
countries they needed to put their hands deep in their pockets, and
soon.
