Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Paying the Price of Climate Change

This year's UN global climate talks in Katowice, Poland are being billed as the most important Conference of the Parties (COP) since Paris in 2015  when almost 200 countries pledged to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit). How the world's nations will actually do that is supposed to be decided in Katowice this year.

Member states are expected to adopt a rule book outlining how countries monitor their greenhouse gas emissions and report their climate protection efforts, as well as how much money industrialized nations will give to poorer countries to help them reduce their emissions and adapt to a warmer world. But so far, they haven't been paying up as pledged.

Industrialized nations have been responsible for around 80 percent of emissions over the last 150 years. But it's those who live in poor countries in the global South who are suffering most from climate change. ndustrialized nations agreed to spend a total of $100 billion (€86 billion) per year — including funds and development aid — on climate protection in poorer countries.

Gebru Jember Endalew, chair of the Least Developed Countries (LDC) Group, which consists of the 48 poorest nations signed on to the UN's climate framework (UNFCCC), says climate finance is a make-or-break question for many developing countries.

"The Paris Agreement cannot be implemented without climate finance," he said in a statement. "The failure of rich countries to deliver adequate resources has severe ramifications for people and communities in the Least Developed Countries and around the world that are already bearing the brunt of climate change on a daily basis," he added. 

Money has always been a contentious issue at climate talks. But President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the United States, a major donor country, from the Paris Climate Agreement has created a lot of uncertainty and badly shaken confidence among developing countries that rich nations will stick to the deal. Adding to that, industrialized countries have been campaigning for a broad range of financial contributions to count as climate finance, including bilateral aid.

Developing countries reject this. Climate finance isn't charity, it's about justice, they say. "Climate finance is not a handout," Amjad Abdulla, chief negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States at the United Nations, said. "Developed countries are responsible for the vast majority of historic emissions, and many became remarkably wealthy burning fossil fuels. Small islands, by contrast, have contributed an almost immeasurably small fraction of global emissions. Yet, we face devastating climate impacts and some of us could be lost forever to rising seas," he added.

https://www.dw.com/en/climate-finance-poses-hurdle-ahead-of-cop24/a-45442247

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