UN hammers lofty Climate plans with no clear financing strategies

Nov 06, 2021 News

– says countries of the developing world require 10 times more than it receives now

Kaieteur News – As nations gather for the latest round of climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland, a new report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has called for urgent efforts to increase the financing and implementation of actions designed to adapt to the growing impacts of climate change.This is necessary since countries of the developing world require as much as ten times more in financial inflows—for mitigation and adaption measures—than previously thought.In fact, of the US$100B that had been committed to assist Small Island Developing States and Low Lying Coastal States such as Guyana, only about US$75M of those pledges are being met.

Executive Director of UNEP, Inger Andersen

This obtains, since the monies being recorded as outflows to some developing countries cannot be traced as inflows.
The UNEP’s ‘Adaptation Gap Report 2021: The Gathering Storm’ found that, while policies and planning are growing for climate change adaptation, financing and implementation are still far behind target.
Additionally, the report, which was released this week, finds that the opportunity to capitalize on the fiscal recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic to prioritize green economic growth is largely being missed.
“As the world looks to step up efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions – efforts that are still not anywhere strong enough – it must also dramatically up its game to adapt to climate change,” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP.
“Even if we were to turn off the tap on greenhouse gas emissions today, the impact of climate change would be with us for many decades to come. We need a step change in adaptation ambition for funding and implementation to significantly reduce damages and losses from climate change. And we need it now.”
Current promises under the Paris Agreement point to global warming of 2.7°C by the end of the century.
According to the report even if the world limits warming to 1.5°C or 2°C, as outlined in the agreement, many climate risks remain.
“While strong mitigation is the best way to lower impact and long-term costs, raising ambition in adaptation, in particular for financing and implementation, is critical to keep existing gaps from widening.”
The report also noted that the costs of adaptation are likely to be on the higher end of an estimated US$140 to US$300 billion per year by 2030 and US$280 to US$500 billion per year by 2050 for developing countries only.
The report lamented, too, that climate finance flowing to developing countries for mitigation and adaptation planning and implementation reached US$79.6 billion in 2019.
“Overall, estimated adaptation costs in developing countries are five to ten times greater than current public adaptation finance flows, and the gap is widening.”
It was noted, that despite marked incremental progress being made in some quarters, the report finds that broader vision is needed in financing and implementation, since this is woefully lacking, along with the absence of a clear strategic plan.
“The world needs to scale up public adaptation finance through direct investment and by overcoming barriers to private sector involvement; more and stronger implementation of adaptation actions is needed to avoid falling behind on managing climate risks, particularly in developing countries.”
Additionally, it was noted that the world needs to consider higher-end climate scenarios projected by the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
This report found that governments should use the fiscal recovery from the pandemic to prioritize interventions that achieve both economic growth and climate change resilience.
They should set up integrated risk management approaches and establish flexible disaster finance frameworks.
It said, too, that advanced economies should also help developing countries to free up fiscal space for green and resilient COVID-19 recovery efforts through concessional finance and substantive debt relief.

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