Report: Global South Needs $2T Annually to Fight Climate Crisis
According to a UN-backed report presented at the COP27 summit on Tuesday, developing and emerging countries, excluding China, need investments well beyond $2T annually by 2030 to cut their greenhouse gas emissions and deal with climate change.
Facts
- According to a UN-backed report presented at the COP27 summit on Tuesday, developing and emerging countries, excluding China, need investments well beyond $2T annually by 2030 to cut their greenhouse gas emissions and deal with climate change.
- In addition to helping poorer countries cope with the impact of extreme weather, the 100-page report, Finance for Climate Action, maps out an investment strategy to help reach the Paris climate treaty goals of limiting the rise in global temperatures to below 2°C.
- The report details that a trillion dollars should come from wealthier countries, investors, and multilateral development banks, while the rest must originate domestically from private and public sources.
- It also calls for grants and low-interest loans from the developed world to double from about $30B annually today to $60B by 2025.
- Investments are reportedly needed in three areas: reduction of greenhouse gas emissions that drive warming (mitigation), adapting to future climate effects (adaptation), and compensation for poor and vulnerable nations for damages already incurred, also called "loss and damage."
- In 2009 the developing nations were promised that by 2020 they would receive at least $100B a year to help them cope with the impacts of climate change. That target has repeatedly been missed.
Sources: Guardian, Al Jazeera, Euro, and Irish Times.
Narratives
- Narrative A, as provided by Climate Champions. We are in the middle of an interlinked climate, energy, nature, and food crisis. Despite small glimmers of progress, the world is still nowhere near the scale and pace of climate action needed to secure a net zero and resilient world by 2050. Governments must radically and rapidly strengthen their climate actions, as detailed in this new report, which shows how "behind the eight ball" we really are.
- Narrative B, as provided by Forbes. While climate change is an urgent issue, journalists and activists have an obligation to separate the facts from fiction and present them without inducing panic. The catastrophic framing of climate change does far more harm than good, not only by impacting the mental health of our youth but by alienating and polarizing large portions of the population and distracting from other important issues. Climate alarmism must be taken with a grain of salt.
