By Nneka Nwogwugwu
South Africa’s environment Minister Barbara Creecy has criticised the lack of progress, since COP26, in the area of climate finance support for developing countries, arguing that there has been a failure to promote “adequate ambition”.
Speaking at the Petersberg Climate Dialogue in Berlin, Germany, Creecy said it was time to tackle climate finance with the sense of urgency and scale it deserved.
Quoting the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change standing committee on finance, Creecy highlighted that developing countries needed between $5- and $11-trillion to meet their climate objectives. However, an Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development report shows that only about $80-billion has been mobilised.
“The only way we can re-establish credibility in financial provision is to set a realistic goal for developed countries to mobilise at least $1-trillion per annum to assist developing countries meet their climate change objectives,” Creecy said at the dialogue, which is being held as part of preparations for the COP27 talks, scheduled for Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, in November.
Creecy also lamented the lack of progress in relation to discussions on loss and damage, adaptation, and the just transition, which she said remained trapped in process-related discussions.
She also used the dialogue to slam those developed countries that were “reverting back to coal in response to their negative national circumstances”, particularly after some developing countries were “vilified” at COP26 for stressing their national circumstances in relation to the continued use of fossil fuels.