New Telegraph

Scaling up global climate finance architecture

There is no doubt that climate change effects are global in scope, unprecedented in scale and pose a serious threat to the existence of the human race. The climate change impacts have resulted in a series of ocean surges, heat waves, floods, windstorms, desertification, drought, irregular pattern of rainfall, and especially loss of lands and homes in both developed and developing countries. There are also recent postulations linking climate change to the deadly COVID-19 pandemic that is presently tearing the world apart.

These and many more occurrences of hydrometeorological disasters bear testament to the fact that climate change is now simply impossible to ignore. Despite the growing threat of the climate crisis to communities around the world, there is limited up-to-date and accurate information to enable an accurate assessment on whether climate change adaptation (CCA) and disaster risk reduction is getting desired attention.

While we cannot prevent storms, cyclones, heat waves and other climate and weather-related hazards from happening, efforts can be geared towards reducing and mitigating their impacts. This necessitates the need to finance climate adaptation, and to build resilience in the communities, countries, and regions at risk. Climate finance plays an important role in supporting countries (especially low income countries) to adopt low-emission, reduce vulnerability and increase the resilience of human and ecological systems.

This has been an integral part of international climate change negotiations since the inception of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992. The UNFCCC serves as the central body that coordinates flow of funds through bilateral, as well as through regional and national climate change channels to assist poor countries with their societal transmissions in response to climate challenges.

In spite of shared global commitments to scaling up climate action, the plethora of sources of finance and funding priorities indicate that the implementation of climate finance agenda is associated with several challenges on multiple fronts.

The reason for this is not far-fetched, as there is little or no commitment from developed countries. Article 9 of the Paris Agreement clearly indicates that developed countries should take the lead in mobilizing resources to support the developing countries to lessen the climate change effects.

However, five years down the line, the agreement has only been on paper and no actions taken to bring it to reality as there is no coordination between the private and the public actors.

The futility of the agreement is further evident in the continued destruction of our planet. Since year 2015 the agreement was signed, global carbon emissions have risen by approximately four per cent, coal emission has increased by one per cent, while oil and the gas have also increased by 1.7 per cent and three per cent respectively.

This could be attributed to the failure of the agreement to make provision for global tax on carbon emissions and punishment for countries that fail to honour the agreement. The recent announcement by the United States to pull out of the treaty and the fallout of COP25 further buttressed the weakness of the agreement.

To achieve the low-carbon transition, it is estimated that $1.6 trillion to $3.8 trillion annual investment between 2016 and 2050 is required for supplyside energy system investments alone, while the Global Commission on Adaptation (GCA 2019) estimates adaptation costs of $180 billion annually from 2020 to 2030.

Nevertheless, there is no concrete consensus among world leaders to meet these financial commitments as they continue to play for time. However, the window for action is shrinking, so something different and more urgent needs to be done. Concerted action is urgently needed to stem climate change and strengthen resilience to pervasive and ever-increasing climate related hazards.

It is against this background that the writer strongly recommends the following with a view to formulating strategic framework to scale up and speed up the growth of global climate finance. Governments in various countries should continue to raise the level of ambition in national climate plans and allocate resources to enable implementation of these plans.

It is also important for public and the private actors to coordinate in order to rapidly scale up finance in sectors beyond renewable energy generation. Besides, the public sector and other actors, such as philanthropic foundations, have an important role in facilitating private finance, through both regulation and blended finance.

More importantly, G20, G7 and other global governance need to scale up their financial support to meet the needs of climate change adaptation as this would go a long way in maintaining the Paris Agreement of achieving Net-Zero Carbon Emissions by 2050 and ultimately save people’s lives and livelihoods.

Finally, a better understanding of climate change adaptation/disaster risk reduction levels of funding to countries in need is key to tracking if the commitments and ambitions made in the UN climate change negotiations are being met and to help clearly quantify funding gaps.

Dr. Okunola is a Senior Research Officer, Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience Specialist at the Institute for Land and Community Resilience, Federal University of Technology, Minna.

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