This year’s UN climate summit was particularly shambolic and grumpy. But the talks seem to have tipped the balance of debate on two important points
climate talks are often compared to a circus or a battleground. This year’s summit, held at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, was particularly shambolic and grumpy. Even the supply of food for delegates was fitful initially.
But twelve months ago in Scotland, that country’s first minister promised £2m to the cause. Against the scale of the problem, of course, that is a comically derisory sum. But it was a first hint that the tide might be turning. Earlier this year, unusually heavy monsoon rains caused more than $30bn of damage and financial losses in Pakistan, equivalent to nearly 9% of the country’s.
Such ideas were starting to gain traction before they popped up in Sharm el-Sheikh. In July a report commissioned by the G20, a club of rich-ish countries, called for changes to the rules governing multilateral development banks, such as relying less on the opinions of credit-rating agencies when deciding whether to make a loan. American officials already seem frustrated at the World Bank’s lack of urgency over climate change.
Even so, Mrs Mottley’s Initiative has won support from France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, who said in his address to COP27 that he had called on theto propose new ways of channelling funding to poor countries by spring 2023. He suggested that the World Bank andneeded new rules to grapple with climate change, which could include forms of debt relief that would suspend payments in the event of a climate-related disaster.
The tussle for money takes place as rich-country taxpayers are feeling squeezed, thanks to inflation and the after-effects of covid-19. Yet the situation in poor countries is much worse: national debt burdens ballooned during the pandemic, and this will make it harder to tackle climate change.
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