Little for developing countries to cheer about in climate finance report

In response to the $100bn climate finance progress report, by Canada and Germany on behalf of the donor countries published today, Nafkote Dabi, Oxfam International Climate Policy Lead said:

“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.”

“Poor countries who are worst affected by this climate crisis will find little here to cheer. Countries in Asia, East and West Africa are experiencing more frequent and more severe impacts of climate change, and they have done little to cause it, and they are least prepared to cope with it. That’s why these financial pledges to them are so important.  Their citizens are struggling now to cope with catastrophic climate-induced disasters such as droughts, floods, and unpredictable rainfall, which have reduced food production, resulted in water shortages, destroyed livelihoods, and displaced millions." 

"To make matters worse, rich contributors gave more than 70 percent of their climate finance in the form of loans in 2020. This means that poor countries are being loaded up with more debt to pay for climate damage. And even though rich countries claim to have mobilized around $83 billion in climate finance in 2020, of which $68 billion they claim was provided as public climate finance, recent Oxfam analysis shows that the actual support provided was just a third of what the reported figures for public finance suggest.” 

“At the upcoming COP27 in Egypt, developed countries must address this glaring gap by committing to significantly increase grant-based finance, something that developing countries have long been calling for.”