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Oxfam welcomed reports of increased climate finance pledges made by finance ministers in Lima today, but warned that only a fraction is meant to help countries most vulnerable adapt to the devastating effects of climate change.

Global climate finance levels are woefully insufficient to keep warming below 1.5°C or protect people from the devastating impacts of climate breakdown —and this gap is particularly evident in countries mired in conflict or that are unable to provide basic services for their communities. 

The 150 countries that have now publicly committed to carbon reduction pledges show that December’s UN climate summit in Paris could, at last, be built on international cooperation rather than competition. 

“While this report provides helpful information on various actions to advance the climate finance agenda, it fails to boost confidence that developed countries will make significant and swift progress on meeting their commitment to provide $100 billion annually, over 2020-2025 to assist poor countries. The report would have been an ideal moment for developed countries to spell out how they will compensate for missing the $100 billion mark earlier through additional climate finance in subsequent years. Also, it lacks a robust roadmap as to how they’re going to double adaptation finance by 2025, something they agreed to at COP 26.”

The true value of money provided by developed countries to help developing nations respond to the climate crisis may be just a third of the amount reported, according to Oxfam estimates published today.

UN climate talks are off the life-support machine, following a last-minute agreement that gives the Kyoto Protocol a lifeline. It establishes a global Climate Fund and, while falling short of the emissions cuts needed, lays out a path to move towards them.

Poor countries will today leave the UN climate change negotiations in Doha with little more than they arrived with, because developed countries failed to take any meaningful collective action to prevent and address the most harmful impacts of climate change.

Joint Media Reaction by Oxfam, CAN Europe, APRODEV, CIDSE

Progress achieved during the past two weeks at Bonn will come to nothing if developed countries don’t scale up their ambition. The mood has been more constructive but the disagreements that derailed the Copenhagen talks are still to be resolved.

All countries must use the COP20 Summit in Lima to resolve the impasse over “climate finance,” and make success possible at the critical Paris talks in December 2015, says international agency Oxfam.