{"id":48900,"date":"2023-12-07T02:33:28","date_gmt":"2023-12-07T02:33:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/energytracker.asia\/?p=48900"},"modified":"2023-12-07T02:33:34","modified_gmt":"2023-12-07T02:33:34","slug":"cop28-climate-finance-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/energytracker.asia\/cop28-climate-finance-day\/","title":{"rendered":"COP28 Climate Finance Day Nets USD 12.5 Billion in Pledges"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Day five of the COP28 climate summit in Dubai was the climate finance<\/strong> day, which was almost derailed after the UK-based\u00a0The<\/em>\u00a0Guardian\u00a0<\/em>newspaper ran a\u00a0story\u00a0the day before highlighting COP28<\/a> President Sultan al Jaber\u2019s statements from a November 21 online conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Al Jaber, the UAE oil chief executive, infamously said there is “no science” behind requiring the end of fossil fuels to limit temperature rise to 1.5C. He added that the phase-out of coal, oil and gas would take the world \u201cback into caves\u201d. Under immense pressure and global shock, he recanted on Monday, stating<\/a>, “We very much believe and respect the science.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Funding Climate Finance<\/strong> and Pledges Made at COP28 UAE<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While COP28 UAE conference delegates, media and the general public were coming to terms with Al Jaber\u2019s views and his\u00a0apparently forced recant<\/a>, work still moved ahead at the 28th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on Monday, including important decisions on funding climate finance objectives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the end of the day at the UN climate change conference, at least 40 different financial pledges were made. Replenishment pledges for the Green Climate Fund (GCF)\u00a0have now surpassed<\/a>\u00a0previous pledges. The second replenishment pledges now total some USD 12.5 billion \u2013 the largest ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A surprise was also in the works regarding the loss and damage fund. Some\u00a0USD 720 million<\/a>\u00a0has been pledged to set up the fund. Loss and damage funds are\u00a0integral to climate justice<\/a>\u00a0for developing countries. Loss and damage refers to the destruction caused by climate change that cannot be prevented or adapted to. After decades of pressure from vulnerable countries, rich countries\u00a0agreed last year<\/a>\u00a0to set up a fund to address the costs of this destruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reality Check<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As promising as Monday\u2019s climate funding pledges at COP28 Dubai were, at least\u00a0USD 2.4 trillion<\/a>\u00a0is still needed for developing countries (excluding China) by 2030. However, adding even more complexity, some\u00a054 developing countries<\/a>\u00a0are now in a debt crisis, hindering their economic development and energy transition to net zero.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least 50% of the world\u2019s poorest countries\u00a0need debt relief now<\/a>\u00a0to avert a major systemic development crisis, a UN Development Programme report recently warned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both governmental and non-governmental organisations offer solutions to rectify the emerging crisis. However, a group of high-profile climate finance experts released a\u00a0comprehensive analysis<\/a>\u00a0of what is needed from all parties involved, including developed countries, the private sector, multinational development banks (MDB), donors and philanthropic organisations. According to the analysis, such a full-scale effort and reform could unlock trillions in finance for developing countries by 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Progress Being Made<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A growing list of developed countries support the need to reform the financial architecture to fight climate change. This includes the need to include debt reform in any upcoming finance conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Monday, more support came from countries and\u00a0MDBs<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 the World Bank, African Development Bank (AFDB), Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) \u2013 to put countries\u2019 debt payments on hold when extreme weather events hit them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Japan and France backed an\u00a0earlier proposal<\/a>\u00a0to use the AFDB to re-channel the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Special Drawing Rights (SDR) for climate and development. SDRs<\/a>\u00a0are rainy-day foreign exchange reserves held at the IMF but are seldom used. However, some were used during the COVID-19 pandemic. Allowing the SDRs to be used by development banks could bolster climate finance in developing markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Negotiation Developments<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Some developed countries are\u00a0claiming<\/a>\u00a0that they\u2019ve likely met their obligations as part of the USD 100 billion in climate financing. However,\u00a0developing countries are pushing back, questioning the lack of data behind those claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Avoiding Debt Traps<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Developing countries are also keen to receive funds in a way that doesn’t add to their debt and doesn’t put them in danger of falling into more\u00a0debt taps,<\/a>\u00a0while wealthy countries would instead raise money in a way that doesn’t permanently deplete their coffers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finance Flows and Global Temperature Goals<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s also heated debate about\u00a0Article 2.1c<\/a>\u00a0of the Paris Agreement. Article 2.1c calls on governments to \u201cmake financial flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development\u201d. This is a\u00a0pre-condition<\/a>\u00a0for achieving the agreement\u2019s adaptation and mitigation goals, including limiting global warming to 1.5\u00b0C above pre-industrial levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

World leaders of Developed countries are claiming that they\u2019re working hard on the issue. However, developing nations are playing defence. They see this as a play to shift attention from the developed world’s climate finance obligations, while also voicing concerns as to whether the implemented finance would flow further to the\u00a0Global North.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who\u2019s Going to Pay?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

COP28 2023 host country United Arab Emirates made a\u00a0USD 100 million\u00a0pledge to the loss and damage fund, which it claims should set an example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other countries<\/a>\u00a0making initial commitments to the fund include Germany (USD 100 million), the UK (USD 75 million), the US (USD 24.5 million) and Japan (USD 10 million.) Pressure will now build for other wealthy countries, including fossil-fuel producer and heavy CO2 emitter Australia, to outline its commitments to the fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was also\u00a0a conversation<\/a>\u00a0about whether China and India should benefit from the climate change fund. China and India maintain that they, too, have vulnerable communities that will need financial support from such a fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the US and others pushed back, claiming that China and India should also make significant emissions cuts for meaningful global climate action and contribute to the fund to limit global warming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China and India countered further, arguing their high emissions levels are a recent development compared to the historic emissions of developed countries like the US and the UK. China, the US and India are the world\u2019s\u00a0largest GHG emitters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Day five of the COP28 summit in Dubai started shaky, as reports broke over summit president Sultan Al Jaber\u2019s earlier anti-fossil fuel phaseout comments. However, by the end of the day, significant progress had been made regarding climate change funding, setting the pace with at least 40 different financial pledges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":48916,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[354,657,15],"tags":[],"hashtags":[],"class_list":["post-48900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clean-energy-financing","category-cop28","category-features"],"acf":{"custom_author_name":"","article_pdf_file":false,"poll_vote":0,"manage_the_date":"global","short_desc":"Day five of the COP28 summit in Dubai started shaky, as reports broke over summit president Sultan Al Jaber\u2019s earlier anti-fossil fuel phaseout comments. However, by the end of the day, significant progress had been made regarding climate change funding, setting the pace with at least 40 different financial pledges.","show_in_lastest_from_the_region":"0","order":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/energytracker.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/energytracker.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/energytracker.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/energytracker.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/energytracker.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/energytracker.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/energytracker.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/energytracker.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/energytracker.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/energytracker.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48900"},{"taxonomy":"hashtags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/energytracker.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtags?post=48900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}