In a crucial meeting for tackling the climate crisis, three big issues around climate finance – funds to support mitigation and adaptation – loom ahead in Egypt at COP27.
The first is the failure of developed states to make good on their 2009 commitment to provide US$100 billion per year in funds for developing states. This issue was raised at Glasgow but hasn’t gone anywhere since. And there’s no prospect of this target being met in 2022.
Second, developing countries, including many Pacific nations, will call for greater focus on finance for adapting to the impacts of global warming.
So far, most of the funds have been channeled to mitigation projects, focused on helping developing states reduce their emissions. But as climate change becomes increasingly felt in developing states, funding for adaptation has become even more important.
Third, the Paris Agreement included recognition of likely “loss and damage”. This refers to destruction wreaked by climate change, where mitigation and adaptation efforts were insufficient to prevent that harm.
At the time, there was no commitment to provide compensation for loss and damage. In Egypt, developing states will likely push harder for financial commitments from the developed world.
The developed world has contributed most significantly to climate change and can better pay to insulate from its effects. But the developing world is least responsible, more likely to feel climate effects and least able to pay for managing those effects.
With the location of these talks in Africa, we can expect these issues to be particularly prominent at COP27.
