• Climate finance is important for adaptation, as significant financial resources are needed to adapt to the adverse effects and reduce the impacts of a changing climate.
• As is always the issue with money, climate financing was expected to be a contentious issue at Cop27 in Egypt
Image: PPS
Climate change discussions have for many years been had in jargon. But now, climate change and its implication are not communicating to the world in jargon but through hunger, starvation, floods, failed crops and death.
One such jargon at the Conference of the Parties (Cop27) is climate financing.
According to UN Climate Change, climate finance refers to local, national or transnational financing—drawn from public, private and alternative sources of financing—that seeks to support mitigation and adaptation actions to curb climate change.
The Convention, the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement call for financial assistance from parties with more financial resources to those that are less endowed and more vulnerable.
This recognises that the contribution of countries to climate change and their capacity to prevent it and cope with its consequences vary enormously. Climate finance is needed for mitigation, because large-scale investments are required to significantly reduce emissions.
Climate finance is equally important for adaptation, as significant financial resources are needed to adapt to the adverse effects and reduce the impacts of a changing climate.
As is always the issue with money, climate financing was expected to be a contentious issue at Cop27 in Egypt
This year, as Unep notes, the world is at a critical juncture to meet the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, as committed to in the Paris Agreement.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, nearly half the world’s population will be at severe risk of climate change impacts by 2030, even with global warming of just 1.5-degrees, thus the need for urgent interventions.
These interventions need resources and developing countries at COP27 called for more adaptation finance.
Speaking on Tuesday at the COP27 Leaders’ Meeting on accelerating adaptation in Africa in Sharma el-Sheikh, President William Ruto said effective response to climate change calls for adequate and predictable financing, capacity building, technology development and transfer.
“We ask developed economies to meet their pledges, including doubling of adaptation finance agreed upon in Glasgow, to cushion Africa and eradicate vulnerability to climate and weather extremes,” President Ruto said.
Poor and developing countries have lamented that despite suffering the most, they are the least polluters.
WTO director general Ngozi Okojo-Iweala pointed out in a panel discussion that Africa contributes only three per cent of greenhouse gas emissions but bears the brunt of climate change.
"We need to support Africa’s Adaptation Plans. Trade is an important adaptation tool,” she said.
There were new pledges from the developed countries in Sharma el-Sheikh, with the UK, for instance, providing £200 million (Sh28.7 billion) to help vulnerable countries adapt to climate change.
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said the UK will provide £200 million to the African Development Bank Group’s Climate Action Window, a new mechanism developed to channel climate finance to help vulnerable countries adapt to the impacts of climate change.
Climate change has a disproportionate impact on the 37 poorest and least creditworthy countries in Africa. Nine out of 10 most vulnerable countries to climate change are in Africa.
Many African countries have experienced extreme weather conditions from severe drought in Somalia to floods in South Sudan and Mozambique.
The floods in Mozambique affected 262,216 people and flooded 142,189 hectares (351,356.7 acres) of crops. A total of 5,913 houses were completely destroyed, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and at least 21 people killed.
“Climate change is having a devastating impact on some of the poorest countries in sub-Saharan Africa but historically they have received a tiny proportion of climate finance,” Cleverly said.
“This new mechanism from the African Development Bank will see vital funds delivered to those most affected by the impacts of climate change, much more quickly."
The UK Foreign Secretary further noted that access to climate finance for emerging economies was a central focus at COP26 in Glasgow and he was pleased to see tangible progress being made.
The African Union also welcomed the Netherlands’ contribution of €110 million (Sh13.8 billion) in support of the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Programme.
Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced the financial commitment during a high-level meeting with Senegal’s President Macky Sall, who is also the chairperson of the African Union, Patrick Verkooijen, CEO of the Global Center on Adaptation, and AfDB President Dr Akinwumi Adesina.
Noting that achieving net zero cannot be done with zero financing, Adesina said the financial support from the Netherlands towards the AAAP Climate Action Window was a major impetus for the bank’s efforts to bolster support for low-income countries of Africa that are most vulnerable to climate change.
Germany also announced $170 million (Sh20.7 billion) for loss and damage, and Belgium €2.5 million (Sh312.6 million), specifically to Mozambique to address the losses brought about by the floods. Austria announced $50 million (Sh6 billion) for loss and damage, and Scotland, which had previously pledged £2 million (Sh243.7 million), announced an additional £5 million (Sh609 million).
COP27 President Sameh Shoukry said specific pledges will help make progress in climate change, even as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen urged leaders to commit to climate financing to the developing world.
Only five European countries – Austria, Scotland, Belgium, Denmark and Germany – have committed to address loss and damage, according to UN News.
However, how does this funding get to the grassroots, to the communities that are most affected by the effects of climate change?
Speaking during Dine for Climate event at Denmark embassy on Thursday, Vihiga Governor Wilberforce Ottichilo said while there has been talk of climate financing, there has been little action.
“There has been climate financing talk all over but action has been very, very limited and not forthcoming. And where they have been any financing, to access it has been a challenge,” he said.
Ottichilo said the funds go to national governments and do not trickle down to the communities, only remaining in capital cities and conference rooms.
As Council of Governors, therefore, Otichillo said they have developed their own strategy by coming up with climate change legislation and policy.
"In all our counties, we have done legislation and policy and in the legislation, we say, since climate change is a cross-cutting issue, we must budget it in all the sectors, particularly adaptation,” he said.
The governor said they have also formed climate change working groups at the ward level.
“We must focus on women and children because they are the most impacted on the ground. When you go to the villages, those two groups are the most important. We are saying we focus on sub-national government,” Ottichilo said.