UN climate meet: Developed countries reaffirm commitment to $100 billion goal

The twenty-second United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP22) came to a close on Thursday in Marrakech, Morocco with developed nations reaffirming their commitment to raising $100 billion, per year by 2020. The world leaders, whose remarks closed a two-week international climate change summit, noted that climate is warming at an alarming and unprecedented rate, calling for urgent action. At COP15 in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2009 and at COP16 in Cancún, Mexico in 2010, developed countries committed to jointly raise $100 billion per year to help developing countries cope with climate change. The two conferences then led to the COP 21 held in Paris, France last year which negotiated the Paris Agreement, a global agreement on the reduction of climate change. An operating entity of the financial mechanism of the Paris convention, dubbed the Global Climate Fund (GCF) was then created as intended to be the main fund for global climate change finance in the context of mobilising $100 billion by 2020. The world leaders noted that following the past conferences - they had seen extraordinary momentum on climate change worldwide, and called for the highest political commitment to combat climate change, as a matter of urgent priority. “We call for an increase in the volume, flow and access to finance for climate projects, alongside improved capacity and technology, including from developed to developing countries. We the developed country parties reaffirm our $100 billion mobilisation goal,” the COP22 Marrakech action proclamation reads in part. “We, unanimously, call for further climate action and support, well in advance of 2020, taking into account the specific needs and special circumstances of developing countries, the least developed countries and those particularly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change.” African Heads of State had on Wednesday in their declaration called on their strategic partners to strengthen cooperation so as to respond to the African ambition for the achievement of inclusive sustainable development. “Provide effective and concrete support for the fulfillment of this ambition by increasing public funding, facilitating access to climate finance and rebalancing financing to promote adaptation, capacity building and technology transfer,” the declaration read. The Marrakech conference saw different funders commit to supporting efforts of fighting climate change efforts. Earlier this week, ten developed countries announced they would provide $23 million to help in capacity building and technical assistance to developing countries. Canada, Denmark, the European Union, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Switzerland and the United States said this would be a major scale-up of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Climate Technology Centre & Network (CTCN). Again this week, the African Development Bank (AfDB) announced it had approved a $10-million equity investment in the Technology and Innovation in Developing Economies (TIDE) Fund I to boost production and growth in Africa. TIDE Africa Fund I, a venture with a target size of $100 million incorporated in Mauritius, has 10-year target life within a 5-year investment period. The fund will invest in companies that leverage on new technology to dramatically lower the cost of services ranging from agribusiness to financial services, energy, education and healthcare, expanding access to these services by households and enterprises. It will initially invest in Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana, followed by Ethiopia, Rwanda and Zambia. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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UN climate meet: Developed countries reaffirm commitment to $100 billion goal