KINSHASA: High-level speakers at climate talks in Kinshasa called out rich nations on Monday for failing to honour a US $100 billion per year funding pledge to developing countries, warning that fair finance was needed to avert the worst of the climate crisis.
Dozens of ministers and senior delegates are in the Democratic Republic of Congo this week for a final meeting before the COP 27 climate summit in November, where more vulnerable countries hope to get compensation for economic losses linked to climate catastrophes.
The finance currently available is a pittance with regard to the magnitude of disasters vulnerable nations and people are facing and will face, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said at the beginning of the three-day event.
Egypt, hosting COP 27, is working on how to include compensation for so-called loss and damage on the formal agenda - a task complicated by the wariness of the liabilities they may face.
Failure to act on damage will lead to more loss of trust and more climate damage, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in New York on Monday. The commitments of the G 20 governments are too little and far too late. He also called for international financial institutions to intensify their efforts to leverage the necessary massive increases of private finance as first-investors and risk-takers beyond pursuing their own drop-in-the-bucket initiatives. Mohammed and Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry highlighted the failure to deliver on an existing US$100 billion pledge to developing countries, which has only been partially met and is due to expire in 2025.
Mohammed also criticised an over 50 per cent shortfall in the US $356 million pledged to a climate adaptation fund at COP 26 last year.
The presummit is intended to be a forum for countries to shape the agenda for negotiations in Egypt and improve the chances of progress.