Wealthy countries meet climate goal two years late
Developed countries achieved their pledge to provide $100bn to help poorer countries cope with climate change in 2022, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said on Wednesday, confirming the target was met two years late.
In 2009, developed countries promised that from 2020 they would transfer $100bn a year to poorer nations buckling under the costs of disasters fuelled by climate change.
They provided $115.9bn in climate finance in 2022, meeting the goal for the first time, the OECD said in a report. The total also includes private finance mobilised by public funds.
The $100bn is far less than the trillions developing countries need to invest in clean energy fast enough to meet climate goals and protect their societies from extreme weather and rising seas.
But the missed target has become politically symbolic, stoking mistrust between nations at recent UN climate talks, as some developing countries argue they cannot make more ambitious commitments to tackle climate change if the world’s economic powers do not deliver promised financial support.
THE EU IS AMONG THE WEALTHY NATIONS DEMANDING THAT MORE COUNTRIES PAY TOWARDS THE NEW GOAL, SUCH AS CHINA
Finance will be the central topic at this year’s COP29 climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, in November. The main task will be to set a new target for climate finance for developing countries, to replace the $100bn goal after 2025.
Already, nations are divided over the new target.
The EU, now the world’s biggest provider of climate finance, is among the wealthy nations demanding that more countries pay towards the new goal — including large emerging economies and those with high carbon dioxide emissions and per capita wealth, like China and Middle Eastern states.
China, now the world’s biggest carbon dioxide emitter, has firmly opposed this in past UN climate talks.
China and most other countries are not obliged to contribute towards UN climate finance goals.
The list of countries obliged to contribute has not been updated since 1992 and includes about two dozen countries that have since become industrialised.