The 27th Cop on climate change is taking place over the next two weeks in the resort of Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt
As the conference begins my colleague Damian Carrington has been working with Carbon Brief of an analysis of climate finance which reveals that the US, UK, Canada and Australia have fallen billions of dollars short of their “fair share” of climate funding for developing countries, analysis shows.
The assessment, by Carbon Brief, compares the share of international climate finance provided by rich countries with their share of carbon emissions to date, a measure of their responsibility for the climate crisis.
The new analysis covers the 24 “Annex II” countries that account for 40% of historical emissions and are obliged to give climate finance under the UN climate treaty, including all of the G7 large economies. It shows some countries gave more than the share of the $100bn indicated by their past emissions.
Switzerland’s funding was more than four times higher, and France and Norway’s was more than three times the amount. Japan, one of the largest providers of funding, supplied $13bn, more than double the amount indicated. However, the funding from Japan and France was largely in loans, whereas that from the US, Canada, Australia and the UK were mostly grants. Grants are strongly preferred by developing countries, which often already carry high levels of debt.
“We have a choice – collective action or collective suicide. It is in our hands.”