New climate fund offers hope to developing countries – DW – 01/12/2023

After years of seeing her country, Uganda, affected by the effects of climate change, Irene Toungirwe, executive director of the non-governmental organization Women for Green Economy Movement Uganda, believes that “you cannot predict what is coming. When it is rainy season, now the sun is shining, and when the sunny season comes, it rains, so it is difficult to predict what is going to happen.”

East Africa has been suffering from a severe drought since 2020, the worst in 40 years, leaving more than 4 million people in need of humanitarian assistance. Scientists at World Weather Attribution said the drought was 100 times more likely to occur due to global warming linked to the burning of fossil fuels.

This is not a unique situation. In some regions, extreme weather events are becoming stronger and more frequent as the planet warms.

“The reality is that when a disaster strikes, we hear about it for a few days or weeks, but then we all forget about it. We don’t forget about it,” said Harjeet Singh, head of global policy strategy at Climate Action Network International. “Give them the support they need to recover from these impacts and rebuild their homes and livelihoods.”

“Historic Agreement” on Loss and Damage

After more than a decade of calls for financing from developing countries to address losses and damages from climate change, the COP27 climate summit in Egypt last year agreed to establish a fund. A year later, it was officially announced.

“I congratulate the parties on this historic decision. It sends a positive signal of momentum to the world and to our work,” said Sultan Al Jaber, President of COP28 of the United Arab Emirates, in Dubai.

The new fund, described as a “landmark agreement,” aims to help poor countries cover the costs of loss and damage linked to increasingly extreme weather. It could also provide money to address so-called “trailing” impacts, such as rising sea levels, which could leave island nations like the Maldives underwater by the end of the century.

Following COP27, an agreement was eventually reached in early November, although observers said some parties were not happy with the outcome.

A major point of contention was which institution would host the fund. The richest countries, such as the United States, preferred the World Bank, but Alpha Kaluga, the main African negotiator on the matter, criticized that “the World Bank is an institution that excludes many developing countries in terms of development criteria.”

Historical responsibility for climate change

The assessment of the vulnerability of candidate countries to such funding and which countries should contribute to it has also been a matter of dispute.

Developed countries want contributions from oil-rich Gulf states and China, which is classified as a developing country despite being the world's second-largest economy after the United States.

Although China emits more carbon dioxide than any other country, the United States remains the largest emitter historically. Since the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, China has released nearly twice as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as the United States.

“When it comes to legal and moral obligations, this falls on the rich countries because of their historical responsibility,” said Singh of Climate Action Network International.

The Transition Committee’s recommendation to COP28 delegates does not require a commitment from industrialized countries to contribute to the fund, but instead urges them to contribute and encourages developing countries to do the same.

Financial objectives of the new fund

Despite the agreement on the fund, no clear target has been set: the UAE and Germany announced on Thursday (30/11/2023) that each will contribute 92 million euros.

Developing countries stand to make billions. According to the London School of Economics, losses and damages in developing countries could total between $290 billion and $580 billion a year by 2030.

There is some distrust towards this fund, because already in 2009, industrialized countries agreed to mobilize $100 billion annually until 2020 and this was not achieved until 2023.

“We have to try,” says Preeti Bhandari, senior advisor for the Global Climate Program at the World Resources Institute. “We can’t give up just because there’s not enough progress. If we don’t put this issue on the table, if we don’t give it a chance to be resolved from the start, the whole battle is lost.”

(rmr/ers)