Climate crisis requires $2.4 trillion annual funding, experts suggest
In a recent report, a team of expert economists gathered by the COP 28 Presidency shared that about $2.4 trillion needs to be invested every year until 2030 to help tackle climate change in growing economies and developing nations. They also plan to create a fresh plan to provide funds for these countries to fight climate change.
The upcoming framework will focus on handling debt problems in vulnerable countries and involving the private sector to provide additional funding. The team, led by Vera Songwe, Professor Nicholas Stern, and Amar Bhattacharya, recognized the need to speed up private financial support to match the projected $2.4 trillion yearly investment required by 2030, even though private funding is on the rise.
The G20 expert group on the reform of multilateral development banks (which is looking at climate finance as one of its topics) and the Chairperson of the 15th Finance Commission NK Singh both attended the climate finance meetings in Abu Dhabi on August 15 and 16.
The roadmap created by the economists will be made public at the UN climate change conference, COP28, which will be held in Dubai in November. It will serve as a roadmap for all institutions, including national governments, the private sector, the IMF, World Bank, and UN agencies, as well as short- and long-term plans to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement.
“Agreement on the roadmap at COP28 will allow leaders across the public, private, and third sectors to drive forward a clear plan of action on international climate finance,” the COP28 Presidency (UAE) said in a statement on Wednesday.
“For too long, climate finance has divided the international community and slowed down progress in confronting climate change and assisting nations most impacted,” COP28 President-Designate Sultan Al Jaber stated. But, the problem of climate finance is at the center of the COP28 agenda since money is how we turn aspirations into reality. The moment is here to take action.
“We are all in no doubt of the urgency of the challenges, of the scale of the problems that we must tackle, and of the global action necessary to rise to these challenges. This is a moment where all stakeholders must step up, including the MDBs, their shareholders, and the private sector,” said Stern, co-chair of the group, in a statement.
“Over the last few months, every corner of the world has been hit by a climate event. We must act fast, collectively, and at scale to turn these climate disruptions into a growth opportunity for people and the planet. The IHLEG group, the COP28 president and all the esteemed colleagues gathered here agree that raising the $2.4 trillion will not be sufficient if we do not accelerate implementation. I look forward to a COP28 that will deliver impact,” added Songwe.
The G20 countries, which account for 80% of the world’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, failed to reach an agreement at the G20 environment and climate ministerial in Chennai last month on the most important issues of climate crisis mitigation in advance of COP28, which is scheduled to take place from November 30 to December 12.
On July 29, HT reported that the controversial topics include, among other things, accelerating the scaling up of renewable energy, tripling the capacity of renewable energy, phasing out unabated fossil fuels, doubling the global rate of improvement of energy efficiency, and reducing emissions by 60% by 2035 compared to 2019 levels. In short, the G20 was unable to reach a consensus on all the crucial measures required to maintain global warming below the 2-degree Celsius threshold and pursue efforts to keep it to 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels as set forth in the Paris Agreement.
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