Developed countries are missing billions of dollars to meet their ‘fair share’ of the $100 billion climate finance target: report

A recent analysis by Carbon Brief, a UK-based website, shows that developed countries, including the US, UK, Australia and Canada, have made financial contributions below those agreed in the international level in terms of share of historical emissions.

The report compares national shares of historic emissions with contributions made to the $100 billion climate finance target that developed countries are committing to by 2020. However, not only has this target not been met, but countries like the United States which should have contributed $40 billion based on past emissions and have only provided $7.6 billion or 19% of their “fair share” by 2020, says the report citing the latest data available.

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Moreover, while countries like Canada and Australia have provided almost 40% of their “fair share”, they are still collectively below their target of at least $5 billion and the UK, who gave 76%, still lacks at least $1.4 billion to reach his goal. commitment to the climate finance target.

These countries, based on their historical contributions, are also among the 24 “Annex II” countries that appear on the list of “developed” or “industrialized” countries, which account for 40% of historical emissions and are legally bound by the United Nations. United. climate convention to provide climate finance. The $100 billion target was agreed by developed countries at the COP15 climate summit in 2009.

On the other hand, countries such as Switzerland proportionally provided more than four times their contribution to emissions. While the contribution of France and Norway was more than three times higher and Japan is one of the largest suppliers with 13 billion dollars, more than double its historical emissions.

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Notably, funding from the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom is largely in the form of grants, which is preferred over Japan and France’s contribution method of loans. , by often heavily indebted developing countries. A Guardian report says the UK government has recently been criticized for not paying the promised $300 in climate funds before the start of COP27.

Meanwhile, the report also shows that the United States is the biggest deficit as it contributed only 19% of its fair share of $40 billion. However, recently a pledge offered by incumbent US President Joe Biden promises to contribute $11.4 billion a year by 2024, while Congress also approved $1 billion in climate funding earlier this year.

The findings were released as part of the ongoing COP27 climate summit in Egypt, which kicked off this Sunday, with climate finance for developing countries being one of the main issues. Additionally, several recent reports from different groups and organizations have sounded the alarm about climate change and its effects in the past few years as well as in the future.

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In the context of funding, UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Thursday stressed the need to increase “adaptation investments” that could save millions of people from “climate carnage”. The World Health Organization said in a statement on Sunday that investing in clean energy will lead to health gains. For example, implementing higher standards for vehicle emissions could save at least 2.4 million lives a year.

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