Rich countries and international institutions “vastly” overestimate the amount of their contributions to climate finance for poor countries, an NGO revealed in an analysis published Thursday, noting a shortfall of more than $340 billion compared to their commitments. .
The NGO ONE monitored the actual amount of contributions from governments and donor institutions to support countries vulnerable to climate change, in order to verify the financial commitments of rich countries and to create a new database: the “Climate Finance Files”.
According to this analysis, almost two thirds of climate financing commitments recorded by the OECD between 2013 and 2021 “were never declared as disbursed” or “were not or only minimally linked to climate”, corresponding to an amount “ staggering” of 343 billion dollars (312 billion euros).
The NGO also notes that “more than one dollar in five” of financial commitments over this period, i.e. 115 billion dollars (104.6 billion euros), “was spent on things that were only little or no connection with climate.
In addition, the analysis specifies that in 2021 the 20 countries most affected by the effects of climate change “received only 6.5% of the funding” they need each year to fight climate change.
For example, Nigeria did not receive 76% of the funding it had been promised between 2013 and 2021, just like Senegal (66%) or Kenya (52%).
The Climate Finance Files thus make it possible to highlight the “gaps” and the “lack of transparency” in the monitoring of climate financing, indicates ONE, deeming the information on the financial contributions of governments and donor institutions “incomplete” and “imprecise”. .
These data – also taken up by the OECD and the UN – “are absolutely unreliable” due to “the absence of common rules and methodologies” for monitoring climate financing, underlines the NGO.
She cites in particular the example of Japan which includes the “financing of a coal-fired power plant” in its climate financing, just like the United States for the “promotion of the use of natural gas” or Italy for acquisition of “police equipment”.
As the COP28 international climate conference opens in Dubai on Thursday, ONE called on rich countries in a statement to “meet their historic commitments” on climate finance, “including actually reaching $100 billion annually promised” from 2020, a joint commitment from developed countries made in 2009.