Following a virtual five-hour Ministerial engagement yesterday, the G-77 and China negotiating bloc is calling on developed countries to live up to their obligation to provide climate financing to assist developing countries in realizing their ambition to grow along low carbon pathways and develop resilience.
“We are worried that the economic impact of COVID-19…will be used to weaken ambition and weaken financing. This happened before, a decade ago when we had the global financial crisis many countries in the developed world used it not to raise ambition and to not reach the pledges they already made. One of the main purposes of this event is to say notwithstanding the impact of COVID-19 we must not lose sight of the existential threat of climate change,” Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo announced during the first of four plenary sessions.
Jagdeo stressed that the event, held under the theme “Maintaining a Low Carbon Development Path towards the 2030 Agenda in the Era of COVID-19” was not geared towards debating climate change or its impact but on finding a consensus with which the disparate group of countries could approach COP26 (UN Climate Change Conference) in Glasgow next year and thereby access adequate financial support to implement mitigation measures.
The goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change he stressed were widely accepted as not enough therefore countries must be more ambitious especially in light of the disruptive nature of COVID-19.
The Group of 77 (G-77) was established on 15 June 1964 by seventy-seven developing countries. It now has 134 members. Guyana is the current chair of the Group.
Several speakers including United Nations Secretary General António Guterres stressed that the pandemic has had a significant impact on the world’s economic reality but called for it to be used as an impetus to shape a more climate resilient world.
“The pandemic and the measures to address its impact have been halting or reversing progress achieved on many of the Sustainable Development Goals,” Guterres acknowledged while suggesting that in recovering from the pandemic the world can also address climate change.
“Climate action will be central to all our efforts. Climate action can help rebuild our economies, create millions of better jobs, and improve our health as we replace polluting industries with clean, efficient technologies. It can provide the engine for growth in developing countries that will eradicate poverty and drive sustained improvements in human development,” he said before setting out six climate-positive actions that countries and other stakeholders can take.
Polluting industries
These actions include investing in sustainable jobs and businesses, ensuring no more bailouts to polluting industries and ending subsidies for fossil fuels, especially coal, considering climate risks in all financial decisions and policy-making, working together and ensuring no one is left behind.
According to the SG the world needs to attain the goals of the Paris Agreement which means limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, supporting adaptation and climate resilience, and working towards net zero emissions before 2050 consequently he has urged all governments to submit more ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement that are consistent with global net zero emissions by 2050.
Jagdeo noted that though Guyana has recently become an oil producer and will by 2025 be producing half a million barrels of oil per day, its position on climate policy remains unchanged. The country is still committed to de-carbonising its economy and still committed to carbon pricing and the removal of subsidies on fuel.
He referenced the presentation made by President Irfaan Ali who highlighted the role of Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS).
The LCDS, Ali explained, is aimed at transforming Guyana’s economy to better deliver greater socio-economic benefits by following a low carbon development path while at the same time mainstreaming climate resilience.
“As part of the LCDS, and working in partnership with the Kingdom of Norway, Guyana was able to develop and implement one of the first national scale payment for forest climate services through avoided deforestation and sustainable management of our forest resources. We remain committed to advancing the LCDS and to collaborate with international partners to expand our work on REDD+ and payment for forest climate and ecosystem services,” he said.
The President also maintained that adequate capacity building, financial support, and technology transfer are critical for developing countries to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.
High indebtedness
“As Chairman of the Group of 77 and China, I call for greater access to climate financing for developing countries. Many developing countries, due to high indebtedness, are constrained in their efforts to generate sufficient resources towards achieving the ‘2030 Agenda’. I call on the international financial community to explore and implement ways where debt can be reduced so as to allow developing countries the fiscal space to achieve the SDGs,” he concluded.
The Vice President in presenting similar arguments took aim at organisations such as the Guyana REDD+ Investment Fund (GRIF) and the World Bank which hold funds for climate financing stating that they are “sitting for too long on these resources.”
“Countries badly need money now…we need financing at scale now,” he stressed repeatedly that there already exists pools of money where pledges have been made but are yet to be disbursed.
Similar points were made by Alicia Barcena , Executive Secretary of the Economic Commis-sion for Latin American and the Caribbean (ECLAC) who stressed that developed countries need to open space to small and medium sized businesses and support their climate change endeavours with concessional funding.
Developing countries she explained do not have the fiscal space to invest in climate mitigation measures and are facing severe balance of payment and debt issues.
Barcena repeatedly stated that while Caribbean states contribute a mere 0.3% of carbon emission they remain very vulnerable to climate change due to a high debt burden, high debt servicing and unprecedented health and social emergencies created by natural disasters such as hurricanes.
She explained that if the intention is to see them implement proper responses to climate change there must be a change in the development model including such measures as multilateral and bilateral debt alleviation. Short-term debt relief to provide fiscal space is she explained essential as is the establishment of a Caribbean resilience fund .
Communique
These suggestions were taken on board and included in a nine-point Communique published after the meeting.
According to the Communique, developed countries are not only obliged to act, but they also have the financial and fiscal capabilities to raise mitigation ambition and emission reduction targets to a level that will enable achievement of the goals under the Paris Agreement, and to provide finance, technology development and transfer, and capacity building support to Developing Countries.
“Developing countries, including those of the Group of 77 and China, are stymied in realizing their ambition to act because they face unsurmountable financing challenges,” it explains adding that if the obligations and commitments by developed countries are fully delivered, developing countries have an opportunity to unleash the potential of many nationally-led solutions proposed.
Additionally the grouping has asked to be included in devising the methodology for tracking climate finance since the goal of mobilizing US100 billion dollars annually by 2020 remains on the distant horizon and there is a lack of transparency in efforts to track it.
Tracking methodologies have been determined without the involvement of recipient countries, they lament.
