Climate finance needs to be made more accessible in the 21st century, and the need to strengthen the cooperation between developed and developed worlds with climate change

And they are dramatic ones, droughts in Africa and floods in Pakistan, in places that could least afford it. For the first time in 30 years of climate negotiations, the summit “should focus its attention on the severe climate impacts we’re already seeing,” said World Resources International’s David Waskow.

Problems caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine, and rampant inflation, might make it harder for developed nations to make good on their financial commitments. That’s to say nothing of the need to boost future obligations in line with the trillions of dollars that developing countries will actually need to prepare for a hotter Earth.

“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.

Despite the turmoil, rich countries face pressure to come up with the money they promised in order to keep developing nations on board with efforts to cut global emissions, says Bella Tonkonogy, a director at the Climate Policy Initiative, a nonprofit that works with governments and businesses to promote economic growth while addressing climate change.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shows how much developing countries received from public and private sources in 2020.

Critics say that the debt load of governments that are already on shaky financial footing is added to by the loans that the bulk of the money is delivered through.

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.

Wanjira Mathai said there was more money in the economy. “There was plenty out there when Covid happened and economies need to be shored up — $17 trillion showed up. There’s money. We have a crisis in empathy.”

As an alternative, there are calls to provide more climate financing in the form of grants, which don’t have to be repaid, says Gaia Larsen, director of climate finance access and deployment at the World Resources Institute’s Sustainable Finance Center.

The United States is on a Highway to Climate Hell with our Foot on the Gaseous Accelerator, Not in the Light of COP

Some impacts from climate change are irreversible, according to the UN, and even if countries could immediately stop emitting greenhouse gasses, the effects of global warming would still be felt for decades.

International climate finance, funds to help poorer countries adapt to the climate crisis and grow their economies without becoming dependent on fossil fuel, was left out of the law.

It can be tricky for the most vulnerable countries to get funding. The process can require data and technical expertise to show how climate funding would be used, and how it would benefit the climate, and some developing countries lack the resources for these analyses

John Kerry, the United States’ special presidential envoy for climate change, has suggested that the president’s goal could be at risk depending on the outcome of midterm elections in the U.S.

“Simply put, we developed countries need to make good on the finance goals that we have set,” Kerry said in October at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C.

Those goals are just a small part of the bucket, say observers. According to the world’s largest asset manager,emerging economies will need at least $1 trillion a year to eliminate or offset their carbon emissions.

“[Raising] ambition in a way that is centered around real results is what I hope will come from COP,” says Bhattacharya, “rather than the rhetoric of the $100 billion.”

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt — “Cooperate or perish,” the United Nations chief told dozens of leaders gathered Monday for international climate talks, warning them that the world is “on a highway to climate hell” and urging the two biggest polluting countries, China and the United States, to work together to avert it.

He said that every nation must step up to bend the emissions curve. At this gathering, we need to increase our climate ambitions. The United States is acting. Everyone has to act. It’s a duty and responsibility of global leadership.”

El-Sisi, who called for an end to the Russia-Ukraine war, was gentle compared to a fiery United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who said the world “is on a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator.”

Biden said he was determined to make transformational changes that were needed and that the United States had to do for the rest of the world. As I stand here before you, we’ve taken enormous strides to achieve that.”

Climate Change Leaders in the House of Leaders: Implications for the United Nations and for the Development of the Most Sustainable Continent

Most of the leaders are meeting Monday and Tuesday, just as the United States has a potentially policy-shifting midterm election. Then the leaders of the 20 wealthiest countries will meet in Indonesia for a confab.

Although underlings are here to negotiate, leaders from China and India seem to be skipping the climate talks. The leader of the top polluting country, President Biden, is coming days later than most of the other presidents and prime ministers on his way to Bali.

“My expectation of ambitious climate targets in these two days are very low since so many leaders are coming to the summit,” said NewClimate Institute’ scientist. The invasion of Ukraine resulted inenergy and food crises which took away from climate action, he said.

“We always want more” leaders, United Nations climate chief Simon Stiell said in a Sunday news conference. There is enough leadership right now for us to have a productive outcome.

In addition to speeches given by the leaders, the negotiations include “innovative” roundtable discussions that “we are confident, will generate some very powerful insights,” Stiell said.

“The historical polluters who caused climate change are not showing up,” said Mohammed Adow of Power Shift Africa. “Africa is the least responsible, the most vulnerable to the issue of climate change and it is a continent that is stepping up and providing leadership.”

The US has refused to create a so-called Loss and Damage Fund, which would help developing countries that are most impacted by the climate crisis because they don’t have a huge amount of power to create the problem. The US has thus far pledged no money to the effort, though Biden’s climate envoy, John Kerry, has said he is committed to talking about a potential fund at COP27.

It’s impossible to discount an entire Continent that has over a billion people living there and some of the most severe impacts. “It’s pretty clear that Africa will be at risk in a very severe way.”

“To meet our global responsibility, my administration is working with our Congress to deliver more than $11 billion a year to international climate finance,” Biden said then, “to help lower-income countries implement their climate goals and ensure a just energy transition.”

There are dire warnings about climate-driven disasters, pleas to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and a plan for a new global weather early warning system that are included in today’s international climate negotiations.

He also referenced the fact that the global population is expected to officially hit 8 billion people during this climate meeting. “How will we answer when baby 8-billion is old enough to ask ‘What did you do for our world, and for our planet, when you had the chance?’” Guterres asked a room full of world leaders.

Extreme storms and floods are some of the effects of climate change and the United Nations wants people to know about it. It is called Early Warning for All.

The plan calls for $3.1 billion over a five year period to create early warning systems for the poor and vulnerable in countries that do not already have them. More money will be needed to maintain the warning systems longer-term.

The Climate Risk and Resilience Portal (CLR Portal): The U.S. and the Forest and Climate Leaders’ Partnership (FLEX), a joint effort to fight climate change

The Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Amor Mottley, went one step further in her opening speech to fellow leaders. She called out corporations that profit in our fossil-fuel intensive economy, including oil and gas companies themselves.

She believes that corporations should contribute to the costs of sea level rise, stronger hurricanes, heat waves and disasters around the world in places like her nation that do not have the money to protect themselves from climate change.

“We want other organizations and communities to see where they’re potentially vulnerable to climate change and take steps to become resilient,” Charlene Lake, AT&T’s chief sustainability officer, said in a news release.

The Climate Risk and Resilience Portal will initially provide information about temperature, precipitation, wind and drought conditions. There will be new risks in the coming months.

In order to fight climate change, more than two dozen countries say they’ll work together to stop and reverse land degradation.

More than one third of the world’s forests lie in 26 countries and the European Union, which are part of the Forest and Climate Leaders’ Partnership.

A group of 141 countries met in Glasgow last year to conserve forests and other plants and animals. The U.N said on Monday that there wasn’t enough money being spent to preserve forests which capture and store carbon.

It is something that Biden has spoken about in speeches to other world leaders.

The White House said Biden would reiterate his desire to help the most vulnerable build resilience to climate impacts when he spoke about U.S efforts to cut carbon emissions at the UN climate summit.

But whether the president will be able to get his goal is questionable because Congress has been reluctant to spend more money than Biden has asked for.

The U.S. Climate Goals and the End of the Trump Era: Implications for the International Green Fund and for Transitioning Economic Organizations

The United States is the world’s largest economy and largest cumulative emitter of greenhouse gas pollution. It has done more over time to warm the planet than any other nation, although China now emits more on a per-year basis.

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

The budget that was passed by the Congress in March this year allocated $1 billion to international climate relief efforts, $387 million more than what the White House wanted but less than what Biden requested.

The U.S. invests more money in terms of total dollars than the other countries, but has a small amount compared to the size of its economy.

But as a UN report laid out earlier this month, the pledge still is many times lower than the full amount needed to tackle the immense, global challenges posed by the climate crisis.

The administration wants to get some of the funds it uses from appropriated funding from Congress and from federal development agencies.

Last year, Biden promised to make a contribution of $11.2 billion per year to that fund, something he hoped would help the developed nations raise $100 billion a year by 2020.

Administration officials hope the second half will come from sources like the Export-Import Bank and the International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), government agencies that use financial instruments like loans and insurance to advance U.S. policy goals abroad.

The fate of Biden’s full international goal will be decided by Congress, with some senators expecting to pass a spending bill by the end of the year.

“We would like, as Democrats, to get a lot of support for the international Green Fund or other means of providing support to transitioning economies into this bill,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. “The obstacle is Republican opposition, and the Republican opposition is driven by the fossil fuel industry.”

How can government development agencies help to meet Biden’s climate pledge? An analysis from the Climate Policy Initiative and a discussion with Tonkonogy

Since the budget was released, the administration’s problems have only gotten worse. Inflation has remained stubbornly high, and some economists worry that interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve could lead to a recession.

Government development agencies are another source of 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.

The DFC and Export-Import Bank use their fees and returns on loans to support their work, rather than receiving money from Congress.

According to the Climate Policy Initiative, it is possible that agency spending could be doubled to meet the president’s pledge to cut emissions by 40% by the year 2020.

The government may not be able to find the money, according to Tonkonogy. There is a question of whether the agencies can 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.

The United States is Getting Closer to its Goals: Spending Less on Climate Action if Congress Can Follow Biden’s Plan

SHARM EL SHEIKH, Egypt — President Biden arrived at the United Nations climate talks on Friday with environmental bona fides that few other American presidents can claim. A landmark climate law is funding $370 billion in a bid to speed the American economy away from fossil fuels. He has seeded climate policy across the federal government. Methane is one of the most potent greenhouse gases and his administration will be the strongest to date to reduce it.

Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act contained $370 billion for climate and clean energy tax credits and new programs – the largest climate-related investment in the country’s history and a significant statement that the US is back in the clean-energy race.

Republicans will have significant input on appropriations in the US Senate due to the Democrats’ razor thin majority. And all are watching to see whether the balance of power in Congress could change after a competitive midterm election.

Biden has had trouble securing Congress’ support for global climate resilience funding, which is needed to help low-income nations prepare for the adverse effects of a warming planet. The chances of new climate legislation in the next two years are likely to be dim if the Republicans are in control.

Even if the US is able to walk the talk this year on its domestic climate goals, it will still face questions about whether it can actually meet its global finance commitments, experts said.

It is not just about the U.S. and other developed nations. According to Barry Rabe, Professor of Environmental Policy at the University of Michigan, its also about what the U.S. does for developing countries. “It becomes a huge challenge for Biden to explain how [the IRA legislation] will benefit other countries.”

The buying power of the private sector might be able to help the US meet its goals. Kerry announced on Wednesday a plan to raise money for climate action through the sale of carbon credits to companies that want to offset their emissions.

John Kerry, the climate envoy to Mr. Biden, has proposed to allow corporations to claim the reductions in greenhouse gases that they will have from investing in renewable-energy projects in developing countries. Many climate scientists and activists believe that carbon offset initiatives are nothing more than a ruse to allow companies to keep emitting greenhouse gasses.

Kerry told CNN on Thursday that it is one of the few ways to generate huge amount of money needed to fund the global clean energy transition.

“We desperately need money,” Kerry told CNN. It takes a trillions and no government is prepared to put it into this on an annual basis.

Steven Guilbeault, Canadian Minister of Environment and Climate Change, said that there are still some challenges to be overcome after reading this year’s progress report. Developing countries can mobilize money post-2025 if they trust us.

In 2020, nations raised $83.3 billion toward the goal, according to a separate report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development released earlier this year.

“Developed countries remain committed to the trajectory on the $100 billion and beyond that was set out in last year’s delivery plan – we do remain on track for delivery in 2023,” COP26 president Alok Sharma told reporters recently.

But Sharma and other climate officials acknowledged a lack of trust from developing nations about whether developed nations would indeed meet their commitments given the years of delay.

“It does very much remain the case that developed countries and indeed the whole of the global financial system, need to be doing even more and faster, to support developing nations,” Sharma said. “Ultimately this is all about rebuilding and retaining trust in the system.”

The Future of Climate Change: U.S. Senator Joe Biden’s Summit Addressed to a Crowded, Youth-Leaved Climate Movement

Mr. Biden is also buoyed by a surprisingly strong showing of his party in Tuesday’s midterm elections, a performance that bucked historical trends and may allow the Democrats to retain control of Congress.

Paul Bledsoe, a climate adviser under President Bill Clinton who now lectures at American University, said there was no way Mr. Biden would embrace the idea of loss and damage payments.

“America is culturally incapable of meaningful reparations,” he said. “Having not made them to Native Americans or African Americans, there is little to no chance they will be seriously considered regarding climate impacts to foreign nations. It’s a complete nonstarter in our domestic politics.”

Before speaking to the group, Mr. Biden is expected to raise the case of Egypt’s protestant, who is currently on a hunger strike. Mr. Abd El Fattah had said he would stop drinking water last Sunday, at the start of the COP27 summit. If he dies, representatives of nongovernmental groups will leave the conference.

Demonstrators, who are a mainstay at U.N. climate summits, have been muted all week at this gathering because of tight restrictions imposed by Mr. Sisi’s government. But on Friday morning, about 100 people from Fridays for Future, a youth-led and organized climate movement, as well as protesters urging a vegan diet and activists opposed to oil and gas drilling in Africa, made their presence known inside the area at the summit that is under the control of the United Nations.

He highlighted a new proposed rule requiring large federal contractors to develop carbon reduction targets and disclose their greenhouse gas emissions, leveraging the federal government’s purchasing power to combat climate change in the private sector and bolster vulnerable supply chains.

The enhanced rule requires oil and gas companies to respond to third-party reports of methane leaks. The EPA rule still must go through a public comment process before it’s finalized.

Biden on the climate crisis: Where do we stand? What are we going to do next? A remark on the U.S. Senate Speaker Nancy Pelosi

Biden said the climate crisis is about security and life on the planet.

It’s a proposal some European countries have latched onto, and have goaded Biden into supporting. But political constraints both in the United States and elsewhere make significant progress unlikely, at least in the near-term.

Speaking at the climate conference Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi acknowledged that after the midterm contests, Democrats will need to partner with Republicans on taking steps to fight climate change, even as she cast doubt on the opposing party’s willingness to take action.

“Our colleagues said, ‘Why are we having this discussion, there is no climate crisis, it’s all a hoax,’” she said of the GOP reaction to investments meant to combat climate change that were included in the Inflation Reduction Act.

She stated that we had to get over it. I place my confidence in their children, because they will hopefully teach their parents that this is urgent.

But he was frank in an interview with CNN’s David McKenzie that “there is not enough money in any country in the world to actually solve this problem,” referring to accelerating the energy transition and tackling the climate crisis.

El-Sisi claimed to have established a comprehensive approach to human rights while speaking ahead of Biden. The US has previously accused Egypt of a woeful human rights record.

Following the fall of Mubarak in the Arab Spring, a period of instability followed by el-Sisi’s elevation to power, which Biden once referred to as his favorite dictator.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/11/politics/joe-biden-egypt-cop27/index.html

The United States isn’t the only country that is making progress on climate change: a U.S. president’s 2020 midterm election speech

A senior administration official told reporters the US is concerned about the case and that there will be a focus onhuman rights in the president’s conversations abroad.

“It’s fundamentally about who is most responsible,” said Fatima Denton, a Gambian scholar, longtime U.N. official and member of the Climate Crisis Advisory Group. “There’s a solidarity issue here that’s only going to become bigger as the crisis grows. Support for that idea is needed now.”

He was referring to the UN secretary general, who said earlier in the week that climate hell was on the way.

Mr. Biden believes that the United States’ new climate law would encourage advancement of batteries, hydrogen, and other technology, as well as reduce costs, improve performance, and benefit the world. “We’re going to help make the transition to a low-carbon future more affordable for everyone,” he said.

The United States government will require domestic oil and gas producers to fix leaks of methane that traps 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide in the short run, according to Mr. Biden. In the United States, the fossil fuel industry is the largest source of methane emissions, due to the odorless odorless gas leaks from the pipelines and being intentionally vented by gas producers. Stopping methane from escaping into the atmosphere is critical to slowing global warming, scientists say.

In a speech at global climate negotiations in Egypt, President Joe Biden said the United States is following through on promises to cut its greenhouse gas emissions, and worked to buoy the image of the U.S. as a global leader against climate change.

The U.S. wants to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by half. The Inflation Reduction Act, which encourages electric cars and efficient buildings, is a big step towards hitting that goal. There are still more that need to be done. An expected 39% reduction in US emissions are projected by the year 2030.

Biden did not announce any major new policies in his speech. This week, his administration has announced a slew of plans to crack down on greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas facilities, invest in renewable energy and direct private money to climate projects overseas.

As the result of the U.S. midterm election is still being counted, Biden told the story of whether or how the U.S. will fulfill its climate promises to the world.

But the industrialized world has fallen short so far of that goal. It is not certain how the White House will fulfill its pledge if Republicans take control of Congress. Congressional Republicans have repeatedly blocked such international climate funding.

Biden wants countries to cut emissions as quickly as possible. The science is clear, he said. “We have to make vital progress by the end of this decade.