New Delhi: An annual investment of $2.4 trillion is needed by 2030 to address climate change mitigation in emerging markets and developing countries according to an independent high level expert group of economists on climate finance convened by the COP 28 Presidency that has agreed to design a new framework for delivery of climate finance for climate change mitigation in developing countries.
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Particular areas of focus for the new framework will include addressing debt distress in vulnerable countries and the role of the private sector in delivering increased finance. The group, chaired by Vera Songwe, non- resident senior fellow at Africa Growth Initiative and Professor Nicholas Stern, chair of the Grantham Research Institute at London School of Economics with Amar Bhattacharya, senior fellow at Brookings Institution serving as its executive secretary, recognised that although private finance flows are growing, they need to grow much faster to meet the $2.4 trillion investment estimated to be needed annually by 2030.
NK Singh, Indian economist and Chairman of the 15th Finance Commission, and co-convenor of the G20 expert group on the reform of multilateral development banks (climate finance is one of the issues the group is looking at) also attended the climate finance talks in Abu Dhabi on August 15 and 16.
{{/usCountry}}NK Singh, Indian economist and Chairman of the 15th Finance Commission, and co-convenor of the G20 expert group on the reform of multilateral development banks (climate finance is one of the issues the group is looking at) also attended the climate finance talks in Abu Dhabi on August 15 and 16.
{{/usCountry}}The roadmap designed by the economists will be released at the UN climate change conference, COP28 to be held in Dubai in November, to guide all institutions, UN agencies, the IMF, World Bank, regional multilateral development banks (MDBs), national governments and the private sector , around short and long-term plans to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement.
“Agreement on the roadmap at COP28 will allow leaders across the public, private and third sectors to drive forward a clear plan of action on international climate finance,” the COP28 Presidency (UAE) said in a statement on Wednesday.
COP28 President-Designate Sultan Al Jaber said: “For too long, climate finance has divided the international community and held back progress in tackling climate change and supporting countries most impacted by it. But climate finance is the issue that lies at the core of the COP28 agenda because finance is how we transform goals into reality. The time for action is right now.”
“We are all in no doubt of the urgency of the challenges, of the scale of the problems that we must tackle, and of the global action necessary to rise to these challenges. This is a moment where all stakeholders must step up, including the MDBs, their shareholders, and the private sector,” said Stern, co-chair of the group, in a statement.
“Over the last few months every corner of the world has been hit by a climate event. We must act fast, collectively and at scale to turn these climate disruptions into a growth opportunity for people and the planet. The IHLEG group, the COP28 president and all the esteemed colleagues gathered here agree that raising the $2.4 trillion will not be sufficient if we do not accelerate implementation. I look forward to a COP28 that will deliver impact,” added Songwe .
Ahead of COP28 scheduled to take place from November 30 to December 12, the G20 countries which contribute to 80% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions failed to reach an agreement on the most critical issues of climate crisis mitigation at the G20 environment and climate ministerial in Chennai last month.
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HT reported on July 29 that the contentious issues include: accelerating the scaling up of renewable energy, tripling of renewable energy capacity, phasing down of unabated fossil fuels, doubling the global rate of improvement of energy efficiency, global peaking of emissions no later than 2025, and reduction in emissions by 60% by 2035 over 2019 levels among others. In short, the G20 failed to agree on all the critical actions needed to keep global warming under Paris Agreement goals of keeping global warming well below 2 degree C and pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 degree C above pre-industrial levels.