The Energy Mix

Top Menu

  • About
  • Latest Digest/Archive
  • Partners
  • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Contact

Main Menu

  • News Archive by Category
    • Climate & Society
      • Carbon Levels & Measurement
      • Carbon-Free Transition
      • Climate Action/”Blockadia”
      • Climate Denial & Greenwashing
      • Climate Policy/Meetings/Negotiations
      • Culture, Curiosities, & Humour
      • Demographics
      • Energy Politics
      • Energy Subsidies
      • Energy/Carbon Pricing & Economics
      • Finance & Investment
      • First Peoples
      • Insurance & Liability
      • International Agencies & Studies
      • Jobs & Training
      • Legal & Regulatory
      • Media, Messaging, & Public Opinion
      • Methane
      • Travel, Leisure & Recreation
    • Climate Impacts & Adaptation
      • Biodiversity & Habitat
      • Drought, Famine & Wildfires
      • Food Security
      • Forests & Deforestation
      • Health & Safety
      • Heat & Temperature
      • Human Rights & Migration
      • Ice Loss & Sea Level Rise
      • International Security & War
      • Severe Storms & Flooding
      • Soil & Natural Sequestration
      • Water
    • Demand & Distribution
      • Air & Marine
      • Auto & Alternative Vehicles
      • Batteries/Storage
      • Buildings
      • Cities
      • Electricity Grid
      • Energy Access & Equity
      • Off-Grid
      • Petrochemicals & Plastics
      • Supply Chains & Consumption
      • Transit
      • Walking & Biking
    • Jurisdictions
      • Africa
      • Arctic & Antarctica
      • Asia
      • Australia
      • Brazil
      • Canada
      • China
      • Europe
      • India
      • International
      • Mexico, Caribbean & Latin America
      • Middle East
      • Oceans
      • Small Island States
      • South & Central America
      • Sub-National Governments
      • United States
    • Non-Renewable Energy
      • CCS & Negative Emissions
      • Coal
      • Nuclear
      • Oil & Gas
      • Pipelines/Rail Transport
      • Shale & Fracking
      • Tar Sands/Oil Sands
    • Opinion & Analysis
    • Renewable Energy
      • Bioenergy
      • Demand & Efficiency
      • General Renewables
      • Geothermal
      • Hydrogen
      • Hydropower
      • Research & Development
      • Solar
      • Wave & Tidal
      • Wind
  • Special Reports
    • Alberta’s Bitumen Pipe Dream
    • Canada’s Drive to Net Zero
    • Carbon Farming
    • City and Sub-National Action
    • Drawdown
    • Drive to 1.5
    • 26-Week Climate Transition Program for Canada
    • America’s Electoral Climate 2020
    • Canada’s Climate Change Election 2019
    • The Energy Mix Yearbook 2018
      • Climate Extremes
      • Fossils Go For Broke
      • Renewables (R)Evolution
      • Electric Vehicles
      • Canada’s Contradiction
      • COP24
      • Pipeline Politics
      • Jobs and Just Transition
      • Cities and Sub-Nationals
      • Finance and Divestment
      • Climate Litigation
  • Webinars & Podcasts
  • About
  • Latest Digest/Archive
  • Partners
  • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Donate

logo

  • News Archive by Category
    • Climate & Society
      • Carbon Levels & Measurement
      • Carbon-Free Transition
      • Climate Action/”Blockadia”
      • Climate Denial & Greenwashing
      • Climate Policy/Meetings/Negotiations
      • Culture, Curiosities, & Humour
      • Demographics
      • Energy Politics
      • Energy Subsidies
      • Energy/Carbon Pricing & Economics
      • Finance & Investment
      • First Peoples
      • Insurance & Liability
      • International Agencies & Studies
      • Jobs & Training
      • Legal & Regulatory
      • Media, Messaging, & Public Opinion
      • Methane
      • Travel, Leisure & Recreation
    • Climate Impacts & Adaptation
      • Biodiversity & Habitat
      • Drought, Famine & Wildfires
      • Food Security
      • Forests & Deforestation
      • Health & Safety
      • Heat & Temperature
      • Human Rights & Migration
      • Ice Loss & Sea Level Rise
      • International Security & War
      • Severe Storms & Flooding
      • Soil & Natural Sequestration
      • Water
    • Demand & Distribution
      • Air & Marine
      • Auto & Alternative Vehicles
      • Batteries/Storage
      • Buildings
      • Cities
      • Electricity Grid
      • Energy Access & Equity
      • Off-Grid
      • Petrochemicals & Plastics
      • Supply Chains & Consumption
      • Transit
      • Walking & Biking
    • Jurisdictions
      • Africa
      • Arctic & Antarctica
      • Asia
      • Australia
      • Brazil
      • Canada
      • China
      • Europe
      • India
      • International
      • Mexico, Caribbean & Latin America
      • Middle East
      • Oceans
      • Small Island States
      • South & Central America
      • Sub-National Governments
      • United States
    • Non-Renewable Energy
      • CCS & Negative Emissions
      • Coal
      • Nuclear
      • Oil & Gas
      • Pipelines/Rail Transport
      • Shale & Fracking
      • Tar Sands/Oil Sands
    • Opinion & Analysis
    • Renewable Energy
      • Bioenergy
      • Demand & Efficiency
      • General Renewables
      • Geothermal
      • Hydrogen
      • Hydropower
      • Research & Development
      • Solar
      • Wave & Tidal
      • Wind
  • Special Reports
    • Alberta’s Bitumen Pipe Dream
    • Canada’s Drive to Net Zero
    • Carbon Farming
    • City and Sub-National Action
    • Drawdown
    • Drive to 1.5
    • 26-Week Climate Transition Program for Canada
    • America’s Electoral Climate 2020
    • Canada’s Climate Change Election 2019
    • The Energy Mix Yearbook 2018
      • Climate Extremes
      • Fossils Go For Broke
      • Renewables (R)Evolution
      • Electric Vehicles
      • Canada’s Contradiction
      • COP24
      • Pipeline Politics
      • Jobs and Just Transition
      • Cities and Sub-Nationals
      • Finance and Divestment
      • Climate Litigation
  • Webinars & Podcasts
Advanced Search
AsiaClimate & SocietyClimate Impacts & AdaptationFinance & InvestmentHuman Rights & MigrationIce Loss & Sea Level RiseInternational Security & WarJurisdictionsSevere Storms & FloodingSmall Island States
Home›Jurisdictions›Asia›Front-Line Nations Issue Urgent Call for Support as International Climate Finance Falls Short

Front-Line Nations Issue Urgent Call for Support as International Climate Finance Falls Short

November 11, 2020
November 11, 2020
 
22
0
Share:
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  Print This Story
Typhoon Haiyan/ DFID - UK Department for International Development/Wikimedia Commons

Vulnerable nations on the front lines of the climate crisis are flagging the urgent need for support in the face of wild weather and rising seas, just as a report from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) quietly acknowledges that 74% of the climate finance flowing to developing countries in 2018 took the form of loans, not grants.

In a recent post for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, ActionAid global climate lead Harjeet Singh points to the superstorms hitting the Philippines and Vietnam, nearly 30 years after small island states first began talking about the compensation they should be entitled to for unavoidable loss and damage due to climate change. The two countries “are among the most prepared nations for tropical storm season, with effective early warning systems and life-saving evacuation plans,” he writes. “But even they are struggling to cope with the increasing intensity and frequency of climate disasters, and the devastating toll they take.”

Like this story? Subscribe to The Energy Mix and never miss an edition of our free e-digest.

SUBSCRIBE

Just one storm, Typhoon Molave, has brought death and destruction to both countries and produced an estimated US$430 million in economic loses in Vietnam alone. “Yet the global community continues to come up short when it comes to supporting the countries on the front line of the climate crisis, particularly the rich nations most responsible for the emergency.”

After Typhoon Haiyan ripped through the Philippines seven years ago, triggering hunger strikes to draw attention to the crisis during the 2013 United Nations climate conference in Warsaw, delegates adopted an “international mechanism” to support countries facing extreme, slow-onset climate disasters. But seven years later, “in the face of rising global temperatures, unprecedented wildfires, increasingly frequent and severe super storms, flooding, sea level rise, and drought, the [Warsaw International Mechanism] continues to hold technical meetings that amount to paper-pushing exercises,” Singh writes. “Rich countries have continued to bully the committee members representing developing nations by blocking progress on financial support. Meanwhile, climate survivors in the most vulnerable countries, those who have done the least to cause the climate crisis, are left to fend for themselves.”

Singh’s opinion piece links to a 2019 analysis by Action Aid that looks at different funding mechanisms to cover the “soaring costs of loss and damage” and weighs them against human rights criteria.

While loss and damage is just one urgent but specialized piece of the bigger climate finance puzzle, the bigger picture isn’t much better. At the 2009 UN climate conference in Copenhagen, rich countries promised to hit a threshold of $100 billion per year in climate finance for the developing world by this year. The OECD’s latest figures show an 11% increase in 2018, but to a total of only $78.9 billion, The National reports, still far short of the target.

“Donors need to urgently step up their efforts to support developing countries to respond to the immediate effects of the pandemic and to integrate climate actions into each country’s recovery from the COVID-19 crisis to drive sustainable, resilient, and inclusive economic growth,” said OECD Secretary-General José Angel Gurría.

In contrast to persistent calls for international finance to emphasize climate change adaptation, on a par with efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the OECD found that 70% of the financing in 2018 went to mitigation. Nearly 70% went to middle-income countries, compared to only 8% to the poorest. And of the $62.2 billion that came from government sources, 74% took the form of loans, a sharp increase from 52% in 2013.

At past UN climate conferences, the OECD has come under fire for calculating climate finance in a way that sees no obvious problem with asking developing countries to repay loans to the world’s richest economies, when those lenders produced the lion’s share of the emissions that caused the climate crisis.

TagsCities - ImpactsDrive to 1.5 Failure Is Not An OptionWe Don't Have Time
Share:
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  Print This Story

Find more stories about
AsiaClimate & SocietyClimate Impacts & AdaptationFinance & InvestmentHuman Rights & MigrationIce Loss & Sea Level RiseInternational Security & WarJurisdictionsSevere Storms & FloodingSmall Island States

    Leave a reply Cancel reply

    Recent Posts

    • ‘Red Alert for Planet’ as UN Report Projects Only 0.5% Emissions Cut by 2030
      ‘Red Alert for Planet’ as UN Report Projects Only 0.5% Emissions Cut by 2030
      March 1, 2021
    • Lookback: Anjali Appadurai Speaks for ‘Silent Majority’ at COP 17
      Lookback: Anjali Appadurai Speaks for ‘Silent Majority’ at COP 17
      March 1, 2021
    • B.C. Pushes Forward with Site C Hydro Megaproject Despite $16-Billion Price Tag
      B.C. Pushes Forward with Site C Hydro Megaproject Despite $16-Billion Price Tag
      March 1, 2021
    • RBC Adds $500 Billion to Sustainable Funds, Faces Mounting Pressure for Fossil Investments
      RBC Adds $500 Billion to Sustainable Funds, Faces Mounting Pressure for Fossil Investments
      March 1, 2021
    • ‘Future Belongs to Renewables’ as Norwegian Wealth Fund Blacklists Four Alberta Fossils
      ‘Future Belongs to Renewables’ as Norwegian Wealth Fund Blacklists Four Alberta Fossils
      March 1, 2021

    News Feed

    Top News

    • Alberta Budget Makes ‘No Provision’ for Keystone Cancellation
      February 28, 2021
    • GM Unveils Retooled, Less Expensive Chevy Bolt
      February 28, 2021

    Read More

    Carbon-Free Transition

    • GM Unveils Retooled, Less Expensive Chevy Bolt
      February 28, 2021
    • Battery Technology Funding ‘Exploded’ in 2020
      February 28, 2021

    Read More

    Canada

    • Alberta Budget Makes ‘No Provision’ for Keystone Cancellation
      February 28, 2021
    • Sask First Nations Rally Behind Community in Fight Against Uranium Firm
      February 28, 2021

    Read More

    U.S.

    • Empire State Building to Run on 100% Renewables
      February 28, 2021
    • Minnesota Governor Sets 2040 Carbon-Free Power Target
      February 28, 2021

    Read More

    International

    • Climate Figures Prominently in German State Elections This Month
      February 28, 2021
    • Spanish Broadband Firms Tap In to Solar
      February 28, 2021

    Read More

    • About the Energy Mix
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy and Copyright
    Copyright 2020 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.