Developing Countries Need More Money to Coper with Climate Change: The UN Report on Climate Change, Andersen, Dubai and the World Bank

The UN report says that developing countries will need more money to cope with the risks of climate change.

Despite being a relatively small share of the greenhouse gasses that are causing temperatures to rise, the world’s poorest countries have been hardest hit by global warming so far. The UN report states that a multi-year drought in Africa and a flood in Pakistan this summer are proof that climate risks are on the rise.

The UN Environment Programme Executive Director Inger Andersen wrote in her foreword to the report that strong political will is needed to increase adaptation investments and outcomes.

“If we don’t want to spend the coming decades in emergency response mode, dealing with disaster after disaster, we need to get ahead of the game,” she added.

The UN published the report days before its annual climate conference starts in Egypt. In a separate report published last week, the UN said the world isn’t cutting greenhouse gas emissions nearly enough to avoid potentially catastrophic sea level rise and other global dangers.

There are dire warnings about climate-driven disasters, pleas to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and a plan for a global weather early warning system as international climate negotiations got underway.

“The discourse needs to be raised significantly, the level of ambition, so that you can actually continue to do what you’re doing on mitigation even more, but you at the same time meet the adaptation needs,” says Mafalda Duarte, CEO of Climate Investment Funds, which works with development banks like the World Bank to provide funding to developing countries on favorable terms.

Most of the financing is going to projects like wind and solar farms that are aimed at limiting further increases in global temperatures. Poorer nations can benefit from planting crops that resist the effects of the weather, but a huge gap exists for projects like building flood defenses.

The UN warned that other issues besides climate change, such as global inflation and energy crises, could limit how much money wealthier countries are willing to provide to developing nations for adaptation.

“We have to change our mindset and the way we think, because, actually, when it comes to climate, you know, an investment across borders in other places is a domestic investment,” Duarte says.

“The challenge is going to be, how do we maintain momentum when there are so many short-term crises and pressures, and yet the climate crisis is intensifying?” says Amar Bhattacharya, who is part of an independent group of experts that was convened ahead of COP27 to advise conference leaders on how to increase climate financing.

“Developed countries know that if we are to reach our global emissions reduction targets that everybody has signed up to, that developed countries need to have credibility and need to have trust established with developing countries,” says Tonkonogy. Establishing that trust can only be achieved with the help of the question of finance.

Developing countries received $82 billion from public and private sources in 2020, according to the latest tally by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Opponents argue that the debt burden of governments already on shaky financial footing is increased by loans receiving most of the money.

Mia Amor Mottley, prime minister of Barbados, has said developing nations should at least have access to loans on the same favorable terms that were offered to their counterparts in the developed world.

Climate Finance and the Challenges of Managing Climate Change in the United States and Other Emerging Countries: Observational Challenges and Prospects

The director of climate finance access and deployment at the World Resources Institute says that there is a call for more climate financing in the form of grants, which do not have to be repaid.

“[Hopefully], going forward, there will be means of making sure that countries are able to act on climate and that they’re able to do so without further getting themselves into trouble in terms of their debt levels and their ability to pay for all the things they need to pay for,” Larsen says.

According to the UN, there are some impacts on climate change that are irreversible even if greenhouse gasses are stopped immediately.

It can be difficult to get funding for countries that are most vulnerable. Data and technical expertise are needed to show how Climate funding can be used, and some developing countries don’t have the funds for these analyses.

The United States has pledged $100 billion of climate finance in a bid to help poor nations adapt to and mitigate effects of a warming planet.

The US’s special presidential envoy for climate change suggests that the goal could be in jeopardy if the U.S. votes for Republicans in the upcoming elections.

Kerry said at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C. that developed countries need to make good on their finance goals.

But observers say those goals are just a drop in the bucket. BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has said emerging economies will need at least $1 trillion a year to eliminate or offset their carbon emissions.

What Happened Today At The UN SCOP 27 Climate Negotiations? Dr. A. Bhattacharya’s Opening Remarks

According to Bhattacharya, he hopes that the COP will raise ambition in a way that is centered around real results rather than rhetoric of $100 billion.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres did not mince words in his opening remarks. “We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator,” he warned.

The global population is expected to hit 8 billion people during this climate meeting. While talking to a roomful of world leaders, she asked “How will we answer when baby 8 billion is old enough to ask ‘What did you do for our world and for our planet’?”

About half the world isn’t covered by multi-hazard early warning systems, which collect data about disaster risk, monitor and forecast hazardous weather, and send out emergency alerts, according to the U.N.

The new plan calls for $3.1 billion to set up early-warning systems over the next five years in places that don’t already have them. More money is needed to maintain the warning systems.

In her opening speech to other leaders, the Prime Minister of Barbados showed her level of sophistication. She called out companies that profit from the fossil-fuel intensive economy.

Those corporations should help pay for the costs associated with sea level rise, stronger hurricanes, heat waves and droughts around the world, she argued, and especially in places like her nation that are extremely vulnerable to climate change and don’t have the money to protect themselves.

AT&T wants other organizations and communities to see where they’re vulnerable to climate change and take steps to become resilient, according to a news release.

The Climate Risk and Resilience Portal will initially provide information about temperature, precipitation, wind and drought conditions. Additional risks such as wildfire and flooding will be added in the coming months.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/11/07/1134696214/heres-what-happened-today-at-the-u-n-s-cop27-climate-negotiations

Preserving the U.S. Contributions to Climate Change: Why he’s talking to the UN and how he can help the most vulnerable

More than two dozen countries say they’ll work together to stop and reverse deforestation and land degradation by 2030 in order to fight climate change.

The European Union and 26 other countries are part of the Forest and Climate Leaders’ partnership, which account for more than one third of the world’s forests.

More than 140 countries agreed at COP26 in Glasgow to conserve forests. However, the U.N. said on Monday that not enough money is being spent to preserve forests, which capture and store carbon.

It was something that Biden had raised while speaking to other world leaders at the UN General Assembly.

When Biden speaks about U.S. efforts to cut carbon emissions at the UN climate summit, COP27, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt on Friday, Biden will reiterate that he wants to “help the most vulnerable build resilience to climate impacts,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

Even if the president succeeds in his goal, he will not be able to because Congress is not willing to allocate as much money as Biden wants.

The US is the biggest polluter of greenhouse gasses and the world’s largest economy. It has done more over time to warm the planet than any other nation, although China now emits more on a per-year basis.

The United States is required to report on progress on its climate goals every two years to the United Nations. The Trump administration did not file those reports for 2018 or 2020.

Biden’s White House Proposal: It’s Going to Be Hard Forbiden To Meet This Eleven-Billion Climate Change Promise

Compared to the other countries involved, the U.S. invests a lot of money in terms of total dollars, but a comparatively small amount relative to the size of its economy.

The administration has two main sources of funds it hopes to draw from: appropriated funding from Congress, and money from federal development agencies.

The second half is hoped to come from the Export-Import Bank and the International Development Finance Corporation, agencies that use financial instruments in order to advance U.S. policy goals abroad.

The first — and most immediate — hurdle that Biden faces is Congress. The Senate needs at least 60 votes to pass a funding bill. Some Republican lawmakers need to join the Democrats.

The White House asked congress for $5.3 billion in funding in March, which would be enough to meet the president’s pledge. But it is a big jump from what Congress has done in the past — roughly five times what it allotted for 2022.

Wyoming Senator John Barrasso, the top Republican in the Senate, denounced the White House proposal as another pipe dream of liberal activism.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/11/08/1132980254/its-going-to-be-hard-for-biden-to-meet-this-11-billion-climate-change-promise

Climate Policy Initiative: Finding the Money for Biden’s Pledge with a Climate-Focused Development Agency in the Preliminary Budget

And since the budget was released in the spring, the headwinds facing the administration have only gotten stronger. Some economists worry that an interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve will lead to a recession because inflation is still high.

Government development agencies provide money for Biden’s pledge. The government invests in projects abroad through agencies like the Export-Import Bank and the International Development Finance Corporation, which lend out money and look to generate a return on their investments.

They support their work largely through their fees and returns that they make on their loans and other programs and not the money they get from Congress.

It’s possible that these agencies could scale up their spending on climate-focused programs to help meet the president’s pledge, according to Bella Tonkonogy of the Climate Policy Initiative, a nonprofit policy research organization.

The government cannot find the money, according to Tonkonogy. These agencies might not be able to quickly identify and vet quality projects.

“That will require working differently — from developing comprehensive climate strategies, to building up staff capacity, to partnering with other agencies,” Tonkonogy said.