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The first draft of the expected agreement from Glasgow, released on Wednesday morning, asks developed countries to double their financial contribution for adaptation efforts in the developing world, and, for the first time, includes a call for eliminating coal and subsidies for fossil fuels.
The draft “notes with regret” the failure of developed countries to deliver on their promise to mobilise $100 billion in climate finance per year from 2020, and “acknowledges the growing need” of developing countries due to a rising frequency in climate change impacts as well as their “increased indebtedness” due to the pandemic.
It therefore calls for greater support through grants or other “highly concessional forms of finance” to be made available but does not mention any minimum amount that should be raised.
Some developing countries and the Africa group had, a day earlier, asked the developed countries to increase the scale of international climate finance to at least $1.3 trillion by 2030 from the current target of $100 billion.
On Wednesday, the BASIC countries (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) once again called for an urgent delivery of $100 billion and begin discussions on deciding the new enhanced target for climate finance in the post-2025 period.
“…(BASIC) Ministers are concerned that climate finance provided by developed countries has fallen short of the $100 billion per year commitment by 2020 and that finance tends to be provided with unilateral condionality and eligibility criteria, as well as in the form of loans, rather than grants, which aggravates the debt crisis,” BASIC ministers said in a joint statement.
“The new collective quantified goal (on finance) must build from a floor of $100 billion per year, be significantly public funded with greater transparency and predictability, and take a balanced approach towards mitigation and adaptation in light of the needs and priorities of developing countries,” it said.
The draft text is expected to go through several revisions before it is agreed on by everyone.
The first draft has only placeholders for several contentious issues because concrete proposals are yet to emerge on these. But even the issues that are covered were assessed to be weak and inadequate by several civil society groups and observers present at the meeting.
“Where is the support to help people forced to pick up the pieces after climate disasters? Where is the action to meet all this talk of urgency? Where are the real commitments that the world needs to limit warming to 1.5°C, or to back up the need for action with climate finance? With this text our leaders are failing us all. These empty words are way off target to meet the scale of the enormous challenge facing humanity,” Teresa Anderson, climate policy coordinator at ActionAid International, said.
The draft text urges all countries to strengthen their targets for 2030, as mentioned in their climate action plans, by next year in a manner that is necessary to align with the global temperature goals (keeping the rise in temperatures to within 2°C from pre-industrial times).
For the first time in any official COP text, a mention on elimination of coal and fossil-fuel subsidies has been introduced. It is only an appeal and no obligation or deadline is sought to be put on any group of countries, but it is doubtful whether this provision would find space in the final version of the text.
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