There are no official guidelines for what activities count as climate finance. Read more at straitstimes.com.
LONDON - Italy helped a retailer open chocolate and gelato stores across Asia. The United States offered a loan for a coastal hotel expansion in Haiti. Belgium backed the film La Tierra Roja, a love story set in the Argentine rainforest. And Japan is financing a new coal plant in Bangladesh and an airport expansion in Egypt.
In doing so, they broke no rules. That is because the pledge came with no official guidelines for what activities count as climate finance. Though some organisations have developed their own standards, the lack of a uniform system of accountability has allowed countries to make up their own. The UN Climate Change secretariat told Reuters it is up to the countries themselves to decide whether to impose uniform standards. Developed nations have resisted doing so.
The system’s lack of transparency made it impossible to tell how much money is going to efforts that truly help reduce global warming and its impact. But billions in spending is scarcely documented, including that from top funder Japan, which accounts for nearly one-third of the funding pledged to date. Officials from Japan’s foreign ministry, which oversees its climate finance contributions, declined to describe any of the country’s funding decisions in detail. The country has drawn criticism from activists and other nations for including in its total projects that rely on fossil fuels or otherwise increase emissions.
The past eight years have been the hottest on record, according to a World Meteorological Organisation alert published in January. Historic floods submerged a third of Pakistan and killed at least 1,700 people in 2022. Millions are facing starvation on the Horn of Africa in the worst drought in decades.
That failure has helped keep climate finance at the top of the agenda at annual UN climate conferences, such as last year’s COP27, held in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. “If we are telling ourselves we are spending money and investing in our future in a way that we are not, then we are courting disaster,” said Mr Matthew Samuda, a minister in Jamaica’s Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation.‘People deserve more’
The United States agreed to lend US$19.5 million to developers of a Marriott hotel franchise in Cap-Haitien, Haiti. At the time of the agreement in 2019, plans called for improving the Habitation Jouissant with more rooms, an infinity pool, a rooftop restaurant and better gym facilities. The developer, Fatima Group, now says it is redesigning the project, which will become a Courtyard by Marriott property.
Some countries count projects that never happened toward climate finance goals. France reported a US$118.1 million loan to a Chinese bank for environmental initiatives, as well as loans totalling US$267.5 million for upgrades to a metro system in Mexico and US$107.6 million for port improvements in Kenya. Each project was subsequently cancelled with no funds paid out, according to the French Development Agency.
Japan considers Matarbari a climate change project because it uses Japanese technology that generates more energy with less coal, resulting in lower emissions than conventional power, said Ms Sachiko Takeda, a Jica spokesman. Jica documents describing the project say Matarbari will emit about 400,000 tons less in CO2 equivalent emissions a year than a typical plant of its size.
“This commitment stands out as a sizable amount among other developed countries,” Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a June 2021 press release. “Japan will continue to lead the global effort to tackle climate change.” “People deserve more,” Dr Kabir said. “They are spending it on other projects, depriving the issues like women’s health, children’s health and salinity intrusion.”In addition to financing the Bangladeshi coal plant, Japan reported loans for coal projects totaling at least another US$3.6 billion, one in Vietnam and two in Indonesia, and US$3 billion for projects that rely on natural gas, the Reuters review found.
Ms Gabriela Blatter, Switzerland’s principal policy adviser for international environment finance, said developed nations aren’t resisting a definition so they can claim “anything under the sun” as climate finance. Rather, she said, they want to stay true to the Paris Agreement, which aims to respect the right of each country to set its own course in fighting the effects of climate change.
“We need a lot of reliable energy to be able to grow our economies,” Dr Amoah said. “If this is what is going to help us develop sustainability, by also offsetting some of the impact, why not?“ Yet Japan has supported allowing gas during a transition period. A 2020 environment ministry document named gas as a transitional fuel “in response to the needs of partner countries.” Japan’s most recent policy statement does not mention gas specifically but says the country will support various energy sources and technologies “in line with the idea that a realistic transition is essential.”
Mr Nasr said he couldn’t comment specifically on the airport expansion or Japan’s decision to count it as climate finance. In general, he said there should be rules to ensure that countries claim only the relevant portion of a project’s funding as climate finance – not the entire budget.
Philippines Latest News, Philippines Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Pulisic spearheads US squad for CONCACAF Nations League title defenceNEW YORK : United States' Chelsea winger Christian Pulisic will spearhead their CONCACAF Nations League title defence when the Final Four kick off on June 15 in Las Vegas, with U.S. Soccer naming their training camp squad on Thursday.The U.S. beat Mexico in extra time two years ago to clinch the title and
Read more »
Evening Update: Today's headlines from The Straits Times on May 31, 2023Read more at straitstimes.com.
Read more »
UN special envoy for Myanmar to step down: UN chief spokesmanUNITED NATIONS: The United Nations special envoy for Myanmar will step down in June, a spokesman for the UN chief told AFP Wednesday (May 31), after an 18-month tenure in which she was criticised by t
Read more »
Southeast Asia central to plastic crisis as world leaders negotiate treaty to fight pollutionThe United Nations Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution has convened this week in Paris to try and institute a binding treaty to establish governance on plastic pollution.
Read more »
Condo and HDB rents inch up in April, with more units leased outThe number of condo units rented out rose by 13.8 per cent from March, while HDB rentals went up 5.8 per cent Read more at straitstimes.com.
Read more »