Financing the capacity of developing countries to counter the climate change crisis which threatens their existence, has been pushed into the never ever land. Examination of the outcome of the COP29 climate conference held in Azerbaijan substantiates such a conclusion. The funding agreements arrived at are said to be quite inadequate to meet the needs of developing countries to adapt to and mitigate against the climate disasters that confront them.
At the conference, the industrial world pledged an annual US$300 billion grant to assist with the needs to counter climate disasters in developing countries. This sum compares to the upwards of US$400 billion which the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) states is needed by those countries on an annual basis. The estimate from a regional negotiator at the conference, former St Lucia government minister Dr James Fletcher, is for an assistance figure of US$500 billion annually, and even a staggering US$1.3 billion. Of great importance to reflect on here, is the fact that the 2009 pledge of the industrial countries to grant the developing world US$100 billion has never been delivered.
“What you are basically saying to developing countries is that we will not give you the level of financing that you need for you to be able to adapt to this climate crisis,” Dr Fletcher told this media house, adding, “I don’t even believe we will get the US$300 billion annually.”
The context of the promises and the non-fulfilment of them must be considered in the environment in which the effects of climate change are disrupting thousands of lives, causing widespread property destruction and land despoliation, and are in large measure the result of the industrial production of the developed world.
Without the pledges being monetised by the industrial world, the expectation is that the developing countries will have to get the financing support needed by seeking loan financing from the international multilateral banks and private finance institutions.
“Which means we now have to increase our debt burden in order to finance a response to a crisis we did not create,” observes Dr Fletcher. However, high numbers of developing countries, including many in the Caribbean, are servicing debt at 100-plus per cent of their GDP.
The Alliance of Small Islands States (AOSIS) at the COP29, referred to the situation as an “increasingly vicious cycle.” It’s one which links loss and damage because of the climate crisis to ever-increasing sovereign debt for the developing world.
The fact is that the crisis which is impacting most severely on developing countries is one which has largely been created by the industrial countries, yet those countries do not fulfill their promises to the developing world to help with the financing of countermeasures to the effects of climate change. Instead, the AOSIS are being placed in even deeper debt to service the loans contracted.
Interestingly, right here in the Caribbean--Barbados--International Monetary Fund managing director Kristalina Georgieva acknowledged that the climate change crisis poses “an acute threat to the Caribbean.” Her advice was for the region “to seize the opportunity provided by global developments to plan and coordinate a green energy transition that fosters inclusive, sustainable and resilient growth across the region.”
Yet, the issue remains: how is the capital to counter the climate disaster to be acquired by developing countries?
