{"id":36336,"date":"2022-11-08T18:52:09","date_gmt":"2022-11-08T18:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/developing-nations-clamour-for-new-deal-on-debt-and-climate-finance\/"},"modified":"2022-11-08T18:52:09","modified_gmt":"2022-11-08T18:52:09","slug":"developing-nations-clamour-for-new-deal-on-debt-and-climate-finance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/developing-nations-clamour-for-new-deal-on-debt-and-climate-finance\/","title":{"rendered":"Developing Nations Clamour\u00a0for New Deal On Debt And Climate Finance\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

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COP27 plenary on Monday as countries make their case for more climate finance and better terms on cash received.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sharm el-Sheikh Egypt \u2013 Small island states and other African and Asian developing nations stepped up their appeals Tuesday for a reboot of the global financial system to make climate finance more affordable to their debt-ridden nations, now battling a rising wave of climate emergencies along with demands to \u201cgo green.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Reducing interest rates on climate loans; shifting more climate finance from loans to grants; imposing a carbon tax on fossil fuel producers; and a fossil fuels \u00a8non-proliferation treaty\u00a8\u00a0 were among the proposals tabled by countries from South Africa to Bermuda and Pakistan to Mali, in a second day of high level statements at the UN Climate Conference (COP27).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe oil and gas industry continues to earn almost $3 billion daily in profits,\u201d said Gaston Browne, Antigua\u2019s prime minister, speaking on behalf of the Alliance of Small Island States, whose very existence is threatened by sea level rise and extreme weather.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is about time that these companies are made to pay a global carbon tax on their profits as a source of funding for loss and damage,\u201d he said. \u201cWhile they are profiting, the planet is burning.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Loss and damage pledges inadequate \u2013 long road ahead<\/h3>\n
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Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados, has set a trend for calls to revamp climate finance.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Meanwhile a handful of rich countries announced about $60 million in initial pledges of aid for climate \u00a8loss and damage.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Civil society groups immediately decried the pledges as woefully inadequate against the estimated $1.3 trillion a year of actual needs for countries ranging from flood-ravaged Pakistan to the drought-ridden Horn of Africa, and small island states devastated by increasingly powerful cyclones and hurricanes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, just getting loss and damage on the climate agenda is \u00a8a significant achievement\u00a8 observed Mia Mottley, Barbados\u00b4 prime minister.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a8It recognizes that those countries such as ours, who have not contributed greatly to the emissions of greenhouse gasses should not be crowded out of our fiscal space in order to be able to finance the reconstruction after a climatic event,\u00a8 she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But she warned that \u00a8we will not achieve the conclusion of it\u00a8 at the present COP.<\/span><\/p>\n

The even bigger challenge <\/span>involves finding new ways to finance climate actions that reduce, rather than add to, the already heavy debt load \u2013 including interest rates on that debt \u2013 of low- and middle-income nations, Mottley noted.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a8The reality is that unless our financial institutions can speak to the current realities, they will not be able to help us transition in this new way,\u00a8 said the prime minister.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

She added that her \u00a8Bridgetown agenda\u00a8 for financial reform,<\/a> including an agreement with the IMF and others on a new \u00a8Blue-Green\u00a8 finance facility to preserve the ecosystem of the Caribbean region with a 10-year interest moratorium, could provide one such model.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Remake global financial institutions or face millions of climate refugees<\/b><\/h3>\n
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Phillip Davis, Prime Minister of Bahamas warns of a tide of climate refugees, if rich countries don\u00b4t act faster.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u00b4s in the interest of rich countries to rethink finance arrangements on all fronts \u2013 mitigation, adaptation and loss-and-damage, added Phillip Davis, prime minister of the Bahamas.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a8What is it worth for you, the world, to keep millions of climate refugees from turning into tens of millions and then hundreds of millions, putting pressure on borders and security and political systems around the world,\u00a8 he asked.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a8 I\u00b4m not telling you to overhaul the World Bank for this new climate era because it\u00b4s the right thing to do, I\u00b4m telling you to get smart and act quickly,\u00a8 said Davis who also echoed a recent World Health Organization appeal for countries to agree on a\u00a0 \u00a8fossil fuels non proliferation treaty to steer our models towards renewables.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a8Let\u00b4s get real about what is coming.\u00a0 Let\u00b4s get real about what we need to do next,\u00a8 Davis added. \u00a8We have no other choice\u2026 The alternative compels us to present ourselves at your borders as refugees.\u00a0 The alternative consigns us to a watery grave.\u00a8<\/span><\/p>\n

Pakistan reeling from multiple needs\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n
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Muhammed Shehbaz Sharif, prime minister of Pakistan.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a8Estimated damage and loss has exceeded $30 billion and this despite our very low carbon footprint. We became a victim of something with which we had nothing to do,\u00a8 said Pakistan\u00b4s Prime Minister, Muhammed Shehbaz Sharif, speaking about the August flooding. <\/span><\/p>\n

The flooding left nearly one-third of the country under water and some 33 million people displaced.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a8Winter is setting in and we need to provide shelter, homes, food packages and medical treatment for people \u2026 for which we are spending billions of rupees from our meager resources,\u201d he continued. <\/span>\u00a8And at the same time we have to spend billions to protect people against other [future] floods and emergencies. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHow on earth can we do this on our own?\u00a8 he asked. <\/span>\u00a8Loss and damage needs to be part of the core agenda of COP27 to meet the pressing humanitarian needs of those that are trapped in a crisis of public financing fueled by debt, and yet have to fund climate disasters on our own.\u00a8<\/span><\/p>\n

South Africa \u2013 only 2.7% of aid from wealthy nations is in grants\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

Meanwhile, South Africa\u00b4s President Cyril Ramaphosa provided a tangible example of the problematics of green finance today \u2013 with reference to a new pact with Europe and the United States to support the country\u00b4s $98 billion plan for a\u00a0 \u00a8just energy transition.\u00a8\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The deal, initiated at COP26 in Glasgow but only finalized on Monday at COP27, includes commitments by <\/span>France, Germany, the UK, the US and the European Union<\/span><\/a>, to provide some $8.5 billion in finance for the first phases of the South African plan.\u00a0 The aim is to move the country away from its heavy dependence on coal and into green energy sources, including green hydrogen, as well as electric vehicles.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Part of the financial package also will go to ensuring that coal worker and their communities \u2013 the people most affected by a transition \u2013 are not left behind.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But of that support, only 2.7% is in the form of grants, with the rest to be made in \u00a8concessional loans and investments and risk sharing instruments,\u201d according to a press release.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And that is a big problem for debt-ridden nations like South Africa, complained Ramaphosa.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBecause South Africa already carries a fairly sizable loan burden, which it has to service from its fiscus, we require more grant funding,\u201d Ramaphosa said, speaking in a separate press briefing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, Ramaphosa expressed hopes that negotiations underway now could help shift that balance, creating a \u00a8real partnership,\u201d as well as a climate finance model that other countries could emulate.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIndustrialized countries \u2026 need to live up to the commitments that they have made, knowing full well that they \u2013 through development of their own economies \u2013 contributed a great deal more to the [climate] damage that many countries on our continent,\u201d said the South African president.<\/span><\/p>\n

Europe: Ambitious targets at home and new investments in Africa<\/b><\/h3>\n
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Ursula Von der Leyen, \u00a8let\u00b4s earn the clean ticket to heaven.\u00a8<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The IPG investment in a green hydrogen facility in South Africa was one of several such announcements made over the past two days in this emerging technology. The European Union and Norway, meanwhile, announced similar partnerships <\/span>with Namibia<\/span><\/a> and Egypt. .\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a8The European Union\u2019s additional renewable capacity is set to more than double this year, up to 50 gigawatts. And if we accelerate and if we scale up \u2013 and that is our plan \u2013 we can, in the next year, meet a new all-time record of over 100 gigawatts of additional renewable capacity,\u00a8 said EU President Ursula Von der Leyen at the opening of the day`s plenary session.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a8Because we know that every kilowatt-hour of electricity that we generate from renewable sources \u2013 like solar and wind, and green hydrogen \u2013 is not only good for our climate, but also good for our independence and our security of supply.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a8Here, the Global South has the resources in abundance. So let us team up. That is why the European Union is signing new hydrogen partnerships with Egypt, with Namibia and with Kazakhstan. That is why we are supporting partners such as Vietnam and South Africa to decarbonise their economies,\u00a8<\/span> she\u00a0 said. \u201cLet us not take the highway to hell, let us earn the clean ticket to heaven.\u00a8<\/span><\/p>\n

And Norway\u00b4s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr St\u00f8re said that national climate commitments, updated since COP26 meant the Nordic country would increase carbon taxes to \u20ac200 per ton as well as reducing its own emissions by 55% by 2030, in line with the EU goal. .<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a8We will fulfill our pledge to double climate finance within the next four years \u2026 and triple adaptation finance, with a particular emphasis on Africa,\u201d declared St\u00f8re. He also welcomed Brazilian President-elect Lula da Silva\u00b4s \u00a8renewed commitment to the Amazon.\u00a8\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a8We also need to strengthen efforts to prevent loss and damage,\u00a8 St\u00f8re added,<\/span> almost as an aside.<\/span><\/p>\n

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COP27 plenary on Monday as countries make their case for more climate finance and better terms on cash received. Sharm el-Sheikh Egypt \u2013 Small island states and other African and Asian developing nations stepped up their appeals Tuesday for a reboot of the global financial system to make climate finance more affordable to their debt-ridden …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[161],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36336"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}