COP29: What is climate finance? – BBC News Thailand

The 29th meeting of state parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) was held in Baku. capital of Azerbaijan This meeting will focus on The main focus is “climate change finance” or climate finance.

This has to do with the money needed to tackle the climate crisis. transition to clean energy or infrastructure that supports climate change to installing early warning systems and introducing drought-tolerant plantations.

The main result of the meeting could be a new commitment from rich countries to provide financial support to poor countries in the southern hemisphere. This is the New Convergence Calculated Goal.

and although developed countries are historically considered responsible for climate change It has pledged more than $100 billion annually. But this time the number could reach trillions of dollars.

The 45 most developed countries negotiating at the COP said they need more than $1 trillion a year in climate change funding by 2030 for member states to implement their climate plans

Another group, made up of 54 African countries, also said that developed countries should be asked to contribute more than $1.3 trillion annually by 2030 for climate finance.

The least developed countries and island states want the new quantitative financial targets to include money for a new loss and damage fund.

The fund aims to address the adverse effects of climate change. towards different communities who cannot accept it and must migrate or receive compensation for irreparable loss.

Study by the Independent High Level Expert Group on Climate Finance, an independent group established under the United Nations climate negotiation process. More than $2.4 trillion per year is needed for climate-related investments in developing countries (excluding China) by 2030, including domestic and international climate investments and at an international level It also covers the conservation and restoration of nature. Including the transition to renewable energy. and adapt to the effects of climate change

The group said this would be a fourfold increase in funding from current levels.

A recent United Nations report says that developing countries need between $187 billion and $359 billion annually. to adapt to a new world affected by climate change But, in 2022, these countries only received $28 billion in funding.

“Current climate change funding is far from where it should be. Considering the magnitude of the challenges facing the world,” said Tom Mitchell, Executive Director of the International Institute for Environment and Development. (International Institute for Environment and Development – IIED), a research institute in London, said

“It’s no big deal trying to put out a forest fire with just a few glasses of water. “

At the COP meeting in Copenhagen 15 years ago, it was agreed that from 2020 rich countries would contribute $100 billion a year as climate finance. This money will be used to transition to clean energy and adapt to the effects of global warming.

Developing countries say this promise has not yet been fulfilled. And this has eroded confidence in the climate negotiations organized by the United Nations.

They say rich countries are counting regular aid money as climate change aid. Including saying that even if there is funding for climate sometimes But it is not easy to get to that money.

However, developed countries disagree. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) says it will provide more than $116 billion in climate aid in 2022.

The Paris Agreement, which was signed in 2015, states that developed countries that have historically been considered a major emitter of greenhouse gases Climate change funding should be available to developing countries.

But developed countries say emerging economies such as China, India and Saudi Arabia, which is also considered a major carbon emitter, should also pay a share in efforts to help poor, vulnerable countries.

“It’s only fair to increase the number of countries joining the bill. This is because economic realities and possibilities are constantly changing,” the United States said.

The European Union agrees that countries that emit a lot of greenhouse gases and have strong economic potential should be involved in paying more than this.

But the G77 China (G77 China), which is a group of developing countries on the UN climate negotiation platform, Instead, he rejected this idea.

The group says that both the Paris Agreement and the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change require developed countries to pay. And negotiations at the COP level are considered part of those two agreement frameworks.

Developed countries say that when evaluating from the amount of money that must be paid, the government’s money alone will not be enough. And inevitably the private sector has to play a part in paying.

High-level independent expert group on climate finance It was agreed that the role of the private sector is very important. and he said that subsidies from the private sector at an international level would usually come in the form of a loan. It needs to expand more than 15 times before it can achieve its climate goals.

But developing countries say that there should be contributions in climate finance. and low interest loans too

“Loans that collect interest at market rates cannot be considered climate finance … This will cause capital to flow back from developing countries to developed countries,” the China G77 group said in a statement.

Poor countries say lending money to climate change will put them even more in debt.

Analysts from IIED show that fifty-eight of the UN’s developed countries and small island states paid $59 billion in debt repayments by 2022, and these countries alone received transition funding of $28 billion in the same year

The average global temperature is now 1.2 degrees Celsius higher than it was before the Industrial Revolution. But scientists say it should not rise above 1.5 degrees Celsius if we are to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

To achieve this goal, countries must take strict and active measures to limit greenhouse gas emissions. It is estimated that by 2030, countries around the world will need to reduce emissions by 42% from 2019 levels.

But the announced climate change plans would reduce these pollutants by only 2.6%.

Developing countries say that without climate change subsidies there was little they could do.

This is why the new quantitative financial targets expected to be signed at COP29 are so important.

But where does that money come from? This is a trillion dollar question.