• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
Analyst Sees Oil and Gas Running Short of Cash as IEA Releases Energy Investment Update May 30, 2023
House of Commons Motion, Senate Bill Urge New Climate Rules for Financial Institutions May 30, 2023
13 Canadian Fossils Linked to Massive Losses in Western Wildfires May 30, 2023
Hamilton Plans Heat Bylaw for Rental Housing May 30, 2023
Supreme Court Decision Undercuts U.S. Clean Water Act May 30, 2023
Next
Prev

Wealthy Countries Fall Short on $100-Billion Annual Climate Fund Promise

November 6, 2020
Reading time: 2 minutes

stevepb/Pixabay

stevepb/Pixabay

8
SHARES
 

In 2009, the world’s rich nations agreed to collectively mobilize an annual US$100 billion in climate finance for poorer nations by 2020. But Oxfam’s examination of the latest available figures finds the reality falling far short of the promise.

The international NGO’s 2020 Climate Finance Shadow Report concludes that only $59.5 billion in climate finance was delivered to under-resourced nations in the 2017-2018 period. And 80% of that took the form of loans, not grants, writes Climate Home News.

  • Be among the first to read The Energy Mix Weekender
  • A brand new weekly digest containing exclusive and essential climate stories from around the world.
  • The Weekender:The climate news you need.
Subscribe

Adding insult to the injury of having to repay monies spent on protecting themselves from a crisis they played little role in creating, the climate finance often took the form of “investment in projects with weak climate credentials.”

Egregious case in point, reports CHN, was Japan’s loan of $700 million in so-called climate financing to Bangladesh. In reality, that money was earmarked for building the proposed Matarbari coal power plant. Tokyo’s rationale for such an accounting was that “the plant was cleaner and more efficient than other power plants.”

Japan, together with France, was also found to have generated “the biggest grant-to-loan imbalance in [its] climate finance, with just 3% of [its] overall contributions attached to grants.”

Of that $59.5 billion in climate finance (up roughly 33% from the previous reporting period), “rich countries gave just $12.5 billion in the form of grants, $22 billion in loans with better-than-market rates, and around $24 billion in loans with standard market rates,” writes CHN, adding that “interest charges and payments to creditors were not deducted from donor countries’ climate finance figures.”

Spain gave out the highest percentage of market-rate loans in its climate finance package, at 55%, followed by Japan at 24%, Germany at 22%, and France at 16% of total contributions.

Australia, the EU, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland all made contributions that were “almost 100% grant-based,” writes CHN.

Pointing out that the ongoing pandemic continues to exact a cruel and deepening toll on under-resourced nations, report co-author Tracy Carty told CHN that, “against a backdrop of rising and unsustainable debt in many low-income countries, there’s a clear risk that finance that should be helping countries respond to climate change could be harming them in other ways.”

In its report, Oxfam stressed the need to “strictly apply” the accounting guidelines adopted two years ago at the UN climate talks in Poland, which are due to implemented next year in Glasgow. It also flagged that several countries seem to be fudging the numbers on just how much private climate finance they are managing to mobilize.

“For example, the full cost of building a school could be counted as climate finance if part of the funding was to make the school more flood-proof,” writes CHN.



in Climate & Society, Community Climate Finance, COP Conferences, Demand & Distribution, Ending Emissions, Energy Access & Equity, International, Jurisdictions, Sub-National Governments

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

/Piqusels
Finance & Investment

Analyst Sees Oil and Gas Running Short of Cash as IEA Releases Energy Investment Update

May 30, 2023
97
Ryan Turnbull/Facebook
Legal & Regulatory

House of Commons Motion, Senate Bill Urge New Climate Rules for Financial Institutions

May 30, 2023
7
David Dodge, Green Energy Futures/flickr
Jobs & Training

Clean Energy to Add 700,000 New Jobs by 2050, with Alberta in the Lead

May 30, 2023
4

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Neal Alderson/Twitter

Out-of-Control Wildfire Burns Homes, Forces Evacuations Outside Halifax

May 29, 2023
2.3k
Crenaissanceman/wikimedia commons

Electric School Buses Boost School Attendance, Deliver Emergency Power

May 7, 2023
397
Martin Davis/Facebook

13 Canadian Fossils Linked to Massive Losses in Western Wildfires

May 30, 2023
443
/Piqusels

Analyst Sees Oil and Gas Running Short of Cash as IEA Releases Energy Investment Update

May 30, 2023
97
York Region/flickr

Hamilton Plans Heat Bylaw for Rental Housing

May 30, 2023
301

U.S. Megadrought Brings Private Water Brokers Into Focus

May 28, 2023
71

Recent Posts

Ryan Turnbull/Facebook

House of Commons Motion, Senate Bill Urge New Climate Rules for Financial Institutions

May 30, 2023
7
David Dodge, Green Energy Futures/flickr

Clean Energy to Add 700,000 New Jobs by 2050, with Alberta in the Lead

May 30, 2023
4
David/flickr

Supreme Court Decision Undercuts U.S. Clean Water Act

May 30, 2023
5
Nicolas Rénac/Flickr

Climate Change to Cut Coffee Growing Lands by Over 50%

May 30, 2023
7
ValiGreceanu/Pixabay

Report Urges Tax Hike for Luxury Air Travel, ‘Pets on Jets’

May 30, 2023
7
Jörg Möller/Pixabay

UK Traffic Calming Strategy Produces Solid Results, Manufactured Anxiety

May 29, 2023
75
Next Post
Simon Villeneuve/Wikimedia Commons

Supreme Court Decision on Northern Quebec Uranium Mine Reinforces Social Licence, Indigenous Authority

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}