POLICY
JAKARTA (FORESTHINTS.NEWS) - In the wake of the two milestone events that wrapped up over the past few days – the COP27 climate change conference in Egypt and the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Bali - some key takeaways have emerged, in particular related to the financing of climate mitigation actions in developing countries.
In 2009, at the COP15 United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen, the world's wealthy nations made a significant pledge, promising to distribute USD 100 billion a year to less wealthy nations by 2020, to help them adapt to fight climate change including by mitigating further rises in temperature.
The world’s advanced countries broke this promise by failing to meet their pledge. In this context, COP27 and the G20 released statements at their conclusion, rebuking the world’s developed nations and urging them to fulfil and even go beyond their original promises.
COP27 ended with the release of the Sharm El-Sheikh Implementation Plan, named after the town where the climate summit took place. Point 36 of the implementation plan expresses "serious concern that the goal of developed country Parties to mobilize jointly USD 100 billion per year by 2020 in the context of meaningful mitigation action and transparency on implementation has not been met and urges developed country Parties to meet the goal."
This statement completely aligns with the misgivings frequently conveyed by Indonesian Environment and Forestry Minister Professor Siti Nurbaya about the pledged USD 100 billion in climate financing. As reported by FORESTHINTS.NEWS (Nov 5), the Minister recently dismissed the unmet climate financing promises as unhelpful.
“We cannot allow our climate actions to be hampered by the uncertainties of the USD 100 billion delivery plan. Climate actions cannot depend on pledges or promises. We are always dealing with climate actions every day on the ground level. Pledges or promises don't help at all,” she asserted.
Predictable financing required
Meanwhile, the G20 summit was brought to a close with the release of the G20 Leaders’ Declaration, in point 16 of which the participating leaders acknowledge ‘the urgent need to strengthen policies and mobilize financing, from all sources in a predictable, adequate and timely manner to address climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation including significantly increasing support for developing countries.’
It is, of course, not lost on anyone that the financing promised by the world’s rich countries 13 years ago has not been predictable, adequate or timely whatsoever. In fact, developed countries themselves now project that their pledge won’t be met until 2023 – 3 years late – by which time it will be substantially insufficient anyway.
The G20 Leaders’ Declaration went on, “We recall and further urge developed countries to fulfil their commitments to deliver on the goal of jointly mobilizing USD 100 billion per year urgently by 2020 and through to 2025 in the context of meaningful mitigation action and transparency on implementation.”
The statement also suggested that even greater climate finance will be required for developing countries to adapt to and mitigate climate change by fulfilling the objectives of the UNFCCC and implementation of the Paris Agreement, referring to the annual financing of USD 100 billion as a ‘floor’ around which deliberations should take place aimed at an ‘ambitious new collective quantified goal of climate finance.’
Minister Nurbaya has repeatedly underlined that her country cannot rely on climate finance promises and has thus forged its own path forward by signing historic MoUs with the US, Norway and the UK, and drawing on its own state budget, to support its FOLU Net Sink 2030 Operational Plan.
The FOLU sector is vital given it is predicted to contribute around 60% of emissions reductions. Despite the lack of financing received from the world’s developed countries, Indonesia has still made great strides in this sector as it heads towards a carbon net sink in 2030.
Transparency
The G20 Leaders' Declaration, meanwhile, also underscored the importance of transparency when it comes to implementing pledges and recalled the Glasgow Climate Pact which encouraged developed countries to double from 2019 levels, at a minimum, their collective provision of climate finance to developing countries for adaptation purposes by 2025.
Referring to Article 9 of the Paris Agreement, the declaration recognized that ‘scaled-up financial resources’ are essential ‘in the context of achieving a balance between mitigation and adaptation’.
Only time will tell if the appeals laid out in the Sharm El-Sheikh Implementation Plan and G20 Leaders’ Declaration will have any tangible effect in the years to come, given that to date fully realized climate pledges from the world’s richest countries, who are overwhelmingly responsible for the majority of global carbon emissions, have been hard to come by.
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POLICY
JAKARTA (FORESTHINTS.NEWS) - In the wake of the two milestone events that wrapped up over the past few days – the COP27 climate change conference in Egypt and the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Bali - some key takeaways have emerged, in particular related to the financing of climate mitigation actions in developing countries.
In 2009, at the COP15 United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen, the world's wealthy nations made a significant pledge, promising to distribute USD 100 billion a year to less wealthy nations by 2020, to help them adapt to fight climate change including by mitigating further rises in temperature.
The world’s advanced countries broke this promise by failing to meet their pledge. In this context, COP27 and the G20 released statements at their conclusion, rebuking the world’s developed nations and urging them to fulfil and even go beyond their original promises.
COP27 ended with the release of the Sharm El-Sheikh Implementation Plan, named after the town where the climate summit took place. Point 36 of the implementation plan expresses "serious concern that the goal of developed country Parties to mobilize jointly USD 100 billion per year by 2020 in the context of meaningful mitigation action and transparency on implementation has not been met and urges developed country Parties to meet the goal."
This statement completely aligns with the misgivings frequently conveyed by Indonesian Environment and Forestry Minister Professor Siti Nurbaya about the pledged USD 100 billion in climate financing. As reported by FORESTHINTS.NEWS (Nov 5), the Minister recently dismissed the unmet climate financing promises as unhelpful.
“We cannot allow our climate actions to be hampered by the uncertainties of the USD 100 billion delivery plan. Climate actions cannot depend on pledges or promises. We are always dealing with climate actions every day on the ground level. Pledges or promises don't help at all,” she asserted.
Predictable financing required
Meanwhile, the G20 summit was brought to a close with the release of the G20 Leaders’ Declaration, in point 16 of which the participating leaders acknowledge ‘the urgent need to strengthen policies and mobilize financing, from all sources in a predictable, adequate and timely manner to address climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation including significantly increasing support for developing countries.’
It is, of course, not lost on anyone that the financing promised by the world’s rich countries 13 years ago has not been predictable, adequate or timely whatsoever. In fact, developed countries themselves now project that their pledge won’t be met until 2023 – 3 years late – by which time it will be substantially insufficient anyway.
The G20 Leaders’ Declaration went on, “We recall and further urge developed countries to fulfil their commitments to deliver on the goal of jointly mobilizing USD 100 billion per year urgently by 2020 and through to 2025 in the context of meaningful mitigation action and transparency on implementation.”
The statement also suggested that even greater climate finance will be required for developing countries to adapt to and mitigate climate change by fulfilling the objectives of the UNFCCC and implementation of the Paris Agreement, referring to the annual financing of USD 100 billion as a ‘floor’ around which deliberations should take place aimed at an ‘ambitious new collective quantified goal of climate finance.’
Minister Nurbaya has repeatedly underlined that her country cannot rely on climate finance promises and has thus forged its own path forward by signing historic MoUs with the US, Norway and the UK, and drawing on its own state budget, to support its FOLU Net Sink 2030 Operational Plan.
The FOLU sector is vital given it is predicted to contribute around 60% of emissions reductions. Despite the lack of financing received from the world’s developed countries, Indonesia has still made great strides in this sector as it heads towards a carbon net sink in 2030.
Transparency
The G20 Leaders' Declaration, meanwhile, also underscored the importance of transparency when it comes to implementing pledges and recalled the Glasgow Climate Pact which encouraged developed countries to double from 2019 levels, at a minimum, their collective provision of climate finance to developing countries for adaptation purposes by 2025.
Referring to Article 9 of the Paris Agreement, the declaration recognized that ‘scaled-up financial resources’ are essential ‘in the context of achieving a balance between mitigation and adaptation’.
Only time will tell if the appeals laid out in the Sharm El-Sheikh Implementation Plan and G20 Leaders’ Declaration will have any tangible effect in the years to come, given that to date fully realized climate pledges from the world’s richest countries, who are overwhelmingly responsible for the majority of global carbon emissions, have been hard to come by.
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