COP 27: Latin America shuts down and pressures rich countries to get more funds for climate action

While at the climate summit COP27 a global action plan is discussed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prevent the Earth from continuing to overheat, Latin American countries they made common cause for ask for more funding for climate action. They did so through a joint presentation by CELAC, an organization whose pro tempore presidency is in the hands of Argentina.

What did they raise? First of all, a demand for unity on a central issue: the rich countries of the global North must take responsibility for the emissions they generate (majority) and compensate the countries of the Global South. This is the principle of shared but differentiated responsibilities.

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How? Mainly, through funds that help them move to online economic systems with the aim of lowering the global temperature, but also with money to cushion the effects of climate change. (adaptation) it’s at compensate for losses and damages.

At the same time, CELAC called for fairer trade measures and flexibility in debt commitments. Also a joint regional climate information system.

“A large mobilization of financial resources from developed countries to developing countries is needed, which could have an impact on the debt sustainability and already small fiscal space of several countries in the region, as well as on their need for just transitions”, we read in the note that presented a decalogue with 13 points.

In addition, they insisted on the need to implement climate finance tools such as sovereign bonds, guarantee funds, climate action debt swaps and others “which are sovereignly promoted by countries and as a complement to public funding”.

Because rich countries claim 100 billion a year

During the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Conference, most developed countries pledged $ 100 billion annual funding for the least developed. At the moment, that goal has never been achieved and CELAC specifically insisted on this.

“We reiterate our concern over the poor results of the mobilization and, above all, the provision of solid climate finance consistent with the needs for transformation in developing countries,” the agency said.

Along the same lines, it was asked to increase this fund to 600 billion by 2024 and to double the budgets of each developed country by 2025, with “transparent information on its progress on an annual basis”.

the message is clear: “The multilateral architecture of climate finance must be fair, transparent, fair and on the basis of the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capacities, recognizing and ensuring predictability and the availability of sufficient financial resources to meet the needs and priorities identified by developing countries ”