Ashraf AboArafe
21 September 2021 – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called on the richest countries at the 76th edition of the United Nations General Assembly to meet an $100 billion climate pledge to support developing countries’ transition to net zero.
Ahead of the Paris Agreement, developed countries committed to mobilise $100 billion a year from 2020 to support developing countries in cutting their carbon emissions, minimising the impact of climate change and adapting their economies to deal with its impact.
While international support for tackling climate change has increased hugely since 2015, developed countries have collectively failed to reach the $100 billion target. Last week, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) confirmed that only $79.6 billion was mobilised in 2019.
With fewer than 50 days to go until the UK-hosted COP26 Summit, the Prime Minister asked world leaders to build on the work that has already been done and get public and private finance flowing so that the climate finance target can finally be met.
The UK has already committed £11.6 billion in international climate finance over the next five years, twice the previous five-year commitment. Yesterday, the Prime Minister announced that £550 million of this will be allocated to support developing countries to meet net zero by adopting the policies and technologies needed to end the use of coal and create a cleaner, greener planet.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “In coming together to agree the $100bn pledge, the world’s richest countries made a historic commitment to the world’s poorest – we now owe it to them to deliver on that. Richer nations have reaped the benefits of untrammelled pollution for generations, often at the expense of developing countries. As those countries now try to grow their economies in a clean, green and sustainable way we have a duty to support them in doing so – with our technology, with our expertise and with the money we have promised.”
£350 million of funding announced yesterday will go to the Climate Investment Funds (CIF). The UK is the largest contributor, and the CIF is one of the world’s largest multilateral funds working to pilot and scale climate solutions in developing countries. This includes support through the Accelerating Coal Transition programme, which seeks to accelerate closures of coal-fired power stations, repurposing sites for clean energy generation and creating green jobs.
A further £200 million of funding, at a minimum, will go to UK PACT (Partnering for Accelerated Climate Transition), the UK’s flagship climate technical assistance programme. UK PACT has been operating since 2018 in 16 countries with high or rapidly growing emissions. It provides the UK’s world-leading expertise to public, private and civil society institutions so that they can help countries to become low carbon economies – reducing both emissions and poverty.
These new commitments are a significant step on the path to delivering the ambition set out by the Prime Minister and other G7 leaders to help meet the infrastructure needs of developing countries, particularly in respect to clean and green growth.
At the end of the UN General Assembly this week the UK will publish the detail of countries’ climate finance commitments to date. In response to calls from developing countries for greater transparency and predictability in international climate finance, the UK has asked Germany and Canada to lead on developing a ’$100bn Delivery Plan’, to be published ahead of the COP26 Summit. The detail on contributions the UK will publish this week will be a key component of this Plan, which will outline how the $100bn goal will be met through to 2025.
