How the richest countries abandon the poorest

Mother with baby after floods in Pakistan (archive image)

Photo: Paula Bronstein / Getty Images

People in poor countries are the least likely to contribute to climate change, but often suffer the most from the effects of global warming.

In order to pay for the restructuring of the economy and adaptation measures in these states, rich countries are to provide 100 billion dollars (86 billion euros) annually - actually since 2020.

This sum will apparently only come together in two years.

“We won't be at this goal in 2022 yet.

But in 2023 we will achieve or even exceed this target, ”said Secretary of State for the Environment Jochen Flasbarth on Monday at a joint event with representatives from Canada and Great Britain.

In the two years after 2023, the sum is forecast to be above the threshold and reach up to 117 billion US dollars from "private and public sources".

According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), climate finance amounts to around 80 billion dollars a year so far.

If you deduct aid in the form of loans, the amount is not even half as high, according to non-governmental organizations.

Climate finance from richer countries is seen as an important basis for the success of the negotiations at the upcoming COP26 climate conference in Glasgow.

The $ 100 billion target was first set in Copenhagen in 2009 and reaffirmed in the Paris Climate Agreement.

The promise was subsequently broken.

"Understandably, there was a lot of frustration in developing countries," said British COP President-designate Alok Sharma about the goals that have not yet been achieved.

The task now is to restore confidence and make progress in Glasgow.

Germany and Canada were tasked with developing a plan for fulfilling the pledge.

Under the new President Joe Biden, the USA doubled its aid and pledged 11.4 billion dollars a year from 2024.

But this is not enough to close the gap.

It is expected that Canada and Germany in particular will increase their pledges again before the conference in Glasgow that begins on October 31.

"The lack of resources costs lives and livelihoods"

A sense of responsibility plays an important role in climate aid.

While China is now the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, generating more than a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions, the US and other major emitters have historically been much more responsible for global warming.

The Prime Minister of the COP host country Great Britain, Boris Johnson, himself recently pointed out that his country, as a pioneer of the industrial revolution, has released a lot of fumes into the atmosphere.

It is therefore a matter of course that the industrialized countries should now »shoulder their responsibility«.

The chairman of the Group of Least Developed States (LDC), Sonam Wangdi, recently stated: "The lack of resources costs lives and livelihoods." The fact that the industrialized countries finally keep their old promise to support vulnerable countries is now "crucial to Build trust and accelerate the global response to climate change «.

The money was looser against Corona

In 2009, $ 100 billion sounded like a horrific sum, but the heat waves, droughts, storms and floods of recent years have made it clear, according to experts, that the sum is nowhere near enough. The billion dollar aid packages that were put together in the context of the Corona crisis to support the economy in rich countries make the climate aid appear even lower.

"With a tax policy response to the crisis totaling nearly twelve trillion dollars, one question arises," wrote climate finance experts recently in a report commissioned by the United Nations: "If a pandemic triggers such a quick and far-reaching response, surely the world can have the will to respond to the climate crisis with the same determination and urgency? "

The 100 billion dollars should therefore "be seen as a base and not as a lid," the report goes on to say.

fww / dpa / AFP