Fight for funding undermines preparation for COP28 – 06/15/2023 – Environment

As Cyclone Biparjoy approached southern Pakistan this week, Pakistan’s top negotiator Nabeel Munir told governments at the UN climate talks in Bonn that it felt like he was “teaching a primary school lesson”, amid disputes over the agenda of the meeting.

The night before the end of two weeks of negotiations, this Thursday (15), an agreement was reached, avoiding a diplomatic embarrassment before the COP28 summit in Dubai, in December.

But the Bonn outcome has not resolved the stark differences between rich countries, which want to focus on a formal work program to step up emissions reductions, and some developing countries, which demand that they also address the lack of international funding to help them switch to clean energy.

“Here in Bonn, negotiators are playing the blame game and pointing the finger at each other’s insufficient action,” said Tom Evans, policy adviser in climate diplomacy and geopolitics at environmental consultancy E3G.

The “grand prize” at COP28, he noted, would be an ambitious political agreement to step up climate action in response to a global review that is expected to highlight how the world is failing to limit warming to a global target of 1.5°C, and is unprepared for climate disasters.

As the Bonn talks wound down, climate policy experts said rich countries’ reluctance to make good on their climate finance pledges and to discuss increased funding for poor and vulnerable countries had soured the atmosphere on most issues under negotiation — and was about to spread to COP28.

Starting in 2020, developing countries are looking for $100 billion a year in funding to help them adopt clean energy and adapt to a warmer planet — a pledge rich nations have said they must finally fulfill this year. The most recent estimate puts this funding at around $83 billion in 2020.

That delay has led to a lack of confidence needed for effective policy negotiations, noted David Waskow, international climate director at the World Resources Institute.

“Progress (in Bonn) has been less than expected on almost all fronts, with one main culprit being money,” he said. “Developing countries are increasingly frustrated that promised resources to implement their climate plans are not materializing.”

The impasse over funding means that many key issues in the mid-year talks – which were intended to set the stage for a successful outcome at COP28 – have not been resolved and have been postponed until further meetings before the year-end summit in Dubai. .

These key areas range from setting targets for a global climate adaptation target for agriculture to planning a just transition to a low-carbon world.