Rich countries have reached their annual climate aid target of $100 billion for poorer countries in 2022, two years behind the commitment made in 2009, the OECD confirmed on Wednesday.
“In 2022, developed countries provided and mobilized a total of $115.9 billion to finance the fight against climate change in developing countries,” according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, responsible for the official compatibility of this promise which must be renegotiated between now and COP29 in November in Baku.
Rich countries, the main historical culprits of greenhouse gas emissions, committed in 2009, under the aegis of the United Nations Convention on Combating Climate Change (UNCCC), to increase to the round figure of 100 billion dollars per year their climate aid by 2020 and until 2025.
These funds are mainly used to finance the decarbonization of energy and transport, as well as to help poor countries secure their water supply, particularly for agriculture, reforestation and sanitation work, in order to adapt to the consequences of extreme climatic phenomena in a world already 1.2°C warmer than in the pre-industrial era.
But the delay in honoring this commitment has become a major cause of tension, even blockage, in international climate negotiations. Many developing countries condition their gradual exit from fossil fuels on the financial efforts of rich countries, seen as “a moral debt”.
Agreeing on the new amount of this aid beyond 2025 is the main result expected in November at the 29e United Nations climate conference, chaired this year by Azerbaijan.
Whatever happens, the amount will remain far below needs, estimated at $2,400 billion per year by 2030 for developing countries (excluding China), according to a calculation by UN experts. But it is supposed to embody a geopolitical signal influencing the rest of the world economy.
India has proposed a new target of $1 trillion. But this increased figure is seen as a provocation by developed countries, who underline the weight taken by other countries, such as China or the Gulf countries, in the global balance sheet of greenhouse gas emissions.
“Smoke screens”
In detail, climate aid from rich countries, of $89.6 billion in 2021, increased by 30% in 2022, according to the OECD, which welcomes “a very significant increase, the strongest in one year” , exceeding its projections.
In November, before COP28 in Dubai, the OECD announced that the 100 billion target had “probably been achieved” in 2022, but without having a definitive assessment.
“There remains a funding gap of $11.2 billion to fill to compensate for the fact that the objective was not achieved in 2020 and 2021,” puts Friederike Röder, vice-president of the NGO Global Citizen, into perspective. .
“A large part of the funds are loans” (69%) “rather than grants” (28%) “and are often combined with existing aid, which blurs the boundaries of real financial aid”, also criticizes Harjeet Singh, Climate Activist.
“It is not just about numbers, but about integrity and genuine support: rich countries must urgently act, dispel these smokescreens and provide real and substantial financial support,” he warns.
The majority (80%) of this aid is public money spent via development banks, the rest being mainly private finance released by these public funds. About $70 billion of this funding went to reducing emissions, $32 billion to adapting to the already devastating consequences of climate change, and the rest to both.