Climate Finance Summit Opens in Paris

Facts

• On Thursday, French Pres. Emmanuel Macron opened the Summit for a New Global Financial Pact in Paris, which seeks to discuss international monetary reforms.¹
• Around 50 heads of state and representatives of international organizations and civil society are expected to attend the two-day summit, intended to find solutions to tackle poverty and climate change.²
• As a first step, the IMF announced it was making $100B in special drawing rights available for vulnerable nations, while the World Bank promised it was easing financing for countries hit by natural disasters.³
• Additionally, the G7 countries said they would provide €2.5B ($2.7B) to help Senegal achieve its target of increasing its share of renewable energy to 40% by 2030, under the Just Energy Transition Partnership program.⁴
• Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres criticized the rules of the international financial system, saying they "have become profoundly immoral" and noting that the EU received $160B to Africa's $34B in 2021.⁵
• The world reportedly needs to allocate $1T a year by 2030 for developing countries to address the climate and biodiversity crisis, including by cutting emissions and boosting resilience.⁶

Sources: ¹New York Times, ²Daily Sabah, ³Reuters, ⁴Bloomberg, ⁵Associated Press, and ⁶The Economic Times.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Reuters. The most significant barrier to addressing the economic issues associated with climate change is not financing but a lack of political will. World leaders must stop lagging and spending so long unenthusiastically discussing issues, and instead start making decisions and taking responsibility. Every year wealthy nations make the same pledges, but nothing changes.
• Narrative B, as provided by Washington Post. The issue of how to economically support climate change reform in the global south is an important, multifaceted issue. Although the global climate emergency is too big a question to answer in a two-day summit, world governments are committed to solving the crisis, and actions are being taken to aid developing countries to transition to clean energy and climate-friendly practices.

Predictions