Africa: Five Maddening Facts About Climate Finance

New in-depth analysis finds that less than one-third of donors' commitments have actually been dispersed for climate projects.

The injustices of climate change are well-known and keenly felt in Africa. The continent is responsible for just 4% of global carbon emissions yet experiences some of the worst impacts of the crisis. Climate change made the historic drought in East Africa, which left 20 million people hungry, 100 times more likely. It made the devastating damage wrought by Storm Daniel, which killed thousands in Libya last year, 50 times more likely. Africa is home to 14 of the world's 20 most climate vulnerable countries.

To correct this injustice, industrialised countries - historically the world's largest carbon emitters - have agreed to help developing countries finance their climate projects. The landmark 2015 Paris Agreement acknowledged the principles of "equity" and "common but differentiated responsibilities" in tackling climate change.

At least that's the theory. Rich countries' financial pledges to date cover a miniscule proportion of the sums needed. The $700 million pledged to the new Loss and Damage Fund at the COP28 climate talks, for instance, was understandably celebrated yet accounts for less than 0.2% of the $400 billion/year needed to compensate for the irreversible harms caused by climate change.

To add insult to injury, high-income countries make it incredibly difficult to track how much money they're actually contributing and where it's being spent. Climate finance reporting is a mess: it's confusing, slow, and imprecise. We're in the fight of our lives and no one is adequately checking and publishing the receipts.

That's why my colleagues and I at the ONE Campaign spent months cleaning and analysing climate finance data and launched The Climate Finance Files. They reveal in unprecedented detail how much governments and international institutions are spending to support climate-vulnerable countries.

Here are five maddening facts we discovered.

1) Nobody knows how much climate finance is being delivered

In this age of information and digitised everything, it is astounding (and tragic) that we lack accurate public accounting of international climate finance. That's partly because there are no standardised reporting rules, guidelines, or definitions that apply across all donors. Instead, high-income countries and international financial institutions decide for themselves what is and isn't climate finance. Depending on who's counting, you can get drastically different numbers...Read more on All Africa

Source: All Africa