SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
debt relief
The Global South Needs Fair, Equitable, and Enduring Climate Finance
While the developed world is rapidly changing its relationship with the rest of the world, the price of not providing climate finance will be economic losses, health impacts, increased disaster costs, food insecurity, biodiversity loss, and infrastructural damage.
Feb 17, 2025
The global commitment to fair climate finance is at a crossroads. COP29 concluded with a disappointing New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance, or NCQG, leaving developing nations at risk of being left behind. With the U.S. withdrawing from the Paris agreement and slashing development aid, prospects for more ambitious fair climate finance are disappearing out of sight. Decisions like these not only threaten global cooperation on climate change but will also fail to meet its core purpose in supporting the most affected communities in adapting to and mitigating climate change. Now, more than ever, fair and equitable climate finance—such as increased grant-based funding and debt relief—is critical.
In Africa, the impacts of climate change are stark and undeniable. Extreme weather events on the continent surged from 85 in the 1970s to over 540 between 2010 and 2019, causing over 730,000 deaths and $38.5 billion in damages. The increasing frequency and severity of floods, droughts, and storms are threatening food security, displacing populations, and putting immense stress on water resources. According to the World Bank, climate change could push up to 118 million extremely poor people in Africa into abject poverty by 2030 as drought, floods, and extreme heat intensify. A stark reality that underscores the urgent need for robust climate finance to implement adaptation and mitigation strategies to safeguard and secure the continent's future.
Without stronger commitments to public grants and additional funding, developing countries risk falling into a cycle of debt that hinders climate action.
At the same time, climate response remains critically underfunded in Africa. From the figures released by the Climate Policy Initiative, the continent will need approximately $2.8 trillion between 2020 and 2030 to implement its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris agreement. However, current annual climate finance flows to Africa are only $30 billion, exposing a significant funding gap for climate adaptation and mitigation strategies.
Climate Finance at COP29
COP29's main objective was to deliver on a finance goal that would see the world off the tipping point. However, after two weeks of nearly failed climate diplomacy, negotiators agreed to a disappointing $300 billion annually by 2035. This amount falls short of the $1.3 trillion per year figure, supported by the Needs Determinant Report, that many developing countries had advocated for.
Nevertheless, the Baku to Belem Roadmap has been developed to address the climate finance gap. This framework, set to be finalized at COP30 in Brazil, offers a crucial opportunity to refine finance mechanisms to effectively and equitably meet the needs of developing countries.
Why the Finance Outcome of COP29 Could Leave Developing Countries Behind
Beyond the insufficient funding, the NCQG lacks a strong commitment to equity, a key principle of the Paris agreement. The principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR) emphasizes that developed countries should bear a greater share of the financial burden. However, the NCQG merely states that developed nations would "take the lead" in mobilizing $300 billion, reflecting a lack of firm commitment.
A major concern is the climate debt trap for developing nations. Much of the climate finance provided is in the form of loans rather than grants, worsening existing debt burdens and limiting investments in sustainable development. Without stronger commitments to public grants and additional funding, developing countries risk falling into a cycle of debt that hinders climate action.
Moving Forward: Shaping Conditions for Fair, Equitable, and Enduring Climate Finance
To ensure COP29's finance outcomes do not leave the Global South behind, several actions are needed.
Firstly, debt relief is crucial. Approximately 60% of low-income countries are already in or near debt distress. Between 2016 and 2020, 72% of climate finance to developing nations was in loans, while only 26% was in grants. Reducing debt burdens would allow developing countries to allocate more resources to climate projects, improve fiscal stability, and attract additional investments.
Similarly, given the mounting climate finance debts in low-income developing countries, increased grant-based financing for climate action is needed. In 2022, developed countries provided around $115.9 billion in climate finance to developing countries, but a significant portion was in the form of loans. Heavy reliance on debt-based financing exacerbates financial burdens on these nations. Grant-based finance, on the other hand, aligns with equity principles and ensures that funding effectively supports adaptation and mitigation.
Another potential path is leveraging private sector investment. The private sector plays an essential role in climate finance. However, its involvement often prioritizes profit over genuine climate benefits. Strategies must ensure that private investments align with climate justice principles. To address this, approaches are needed such as those used by Bill and Melinda Gates.
Lastly, implementing robust governance and transparent mechanisms is critical. This includes developing detailed reporting templates, public participation in decision-making, and clear monitoring systems to track climate finance flows and prevent double counting.
While the developed world is rapidly changing its relationship with the rest of the world from aid to trade, the price of not providing equitable, grant-based, public climate finance will be economic losses, health impacts, increased disaster costs, food insecurity, biodiversity loss, and infrastructural damage. Quite simply, taking the equity conditions into account is the way forward if we are to ensure that the outcomes of COP29 leave no low-income developing nation in the Global South behind.
Keep ReadingShow Less
$4 Trillion Funding Gap for Global South Keeping Green Transition Out of Reach: UN
"A green transition will remain out of reach if the world doesn't help developing countries attract more investment in clean energy."
Jul 05, 2023
Wealthier nations must do much more—including implementing debt relief—to bridge a $4 trillion annual gap in funding needed to meet the United Nations' sustainable development goals, the world body's agency in charge of promoting Global South trade interests said in a report published on Wednesday.
In its annual World Investment Report, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) calls for "urgent support to developing countries to enable them to attract significantly more investment for their transition to clean energy."
"Developing countries need renewable energy investments of about $1.7 trillion annually but attracted foreign direct investment in clean energy worth only $544 billion in 2022," the report states. "Developing countries face an investment gap of $2 trillion annually for the energy transition, out of a $4 trillion annual funding gap for the sustainable development goals."
"Debt relief is urgent to give developing countries fiscal space to make the necessary investments for a clean energy transition and to attract international private investment by lowering country risk ratings," UNCTAD added.
The U.N.'s sustainable development goals (SDGs) form the core of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which was adopted by all U.N. member states in 2015. The 17 sweeping goals include eradicating poverty and hunger, achieving gender equality, boosting education and public health, and taking urgent action on climate change.
The UNCTAD report showed that international investment in renewable energy production, including solar and wind, grew 8% in 2022, down from 50% growth reported in 2021, while battery manufacturing tripled to more than $100 billion last year.
"We are at least a decade late in our efforts to combat global warming," warned U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres in the report's introduction.
"Investments in energy infrastructure and efficiency still fall far short of what is needed."
"Investment in renewable energy in developing countries is therefore essential and often the most economical way to bridge the energy gap," the U.N. chief added. "But while the transition to renewable energy is a global priority, investments in energy infrastructure and efficiency still fall far short of what is needed."
UNCTAD Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan said that "the scale of the challenge is enormous."
"So is the range of actions needed to boost investment in sustainable energy in developing countries," she added.
"The growth of green finance in global capital markets, with sustainable bonds growing fivefold in five years, shows that the appetite among private investors to fund climate change mitigation is there," Grynspan asserted. "The task is now to channel those funds to where they are most needed to support the transition and to provide affordable access to electricity for all."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Get Ready for Mass Strikes Across the US This May Day
As the Covid-19 pandemic intensifies and exposes America’s inequalities, workers, so long stifled and embattled, are showing renewed force.
May 01, 2020
Toiling amid a pandemic and a callous response from corporate America and the federal government that is exposing millions to deadly hazards and deepening poverty, workers across the country are rising up, planning hundreds of strikes and sickouts for International Workers' Day on May 1.
May Day actions throughout the United States will include worker strikes, car caravan protests, rent strikes, and a host of social media onslaughts urging work stoppages, and boycotts of major corporations that are failing to fairly pay and protect their workers amid the pandemic.
At a time when worker organizing could be stifled by physical distancing rules and the Trump administration's disabling of the National Labor Relations Board, workers are walking off the job in massive coordinated walk-outs and sick-outs targeting major employers such as Amazon, Whole Foods, Target, Walmart, FedEx, and Instacart, demanding hazard pay, personal protective equipment and other basic protections.
May Day actions throughout the United States will include worker strikes, car caravan protests, rent strikes, and a host of social media onslaughts urging work stoppages, and boycotts of major corporations that are failing to fairly pay and protect their workers amid the pandemic, activists say. Activists are also pressuring for rent and debt relief, and a "People's Bailout" demanding a more equitable stimulus and economic recovery plan that prioritizes workers.
Long overworked and underpaid, warehouse and food industry workers (including grocery clerks, meatpackers, and farmworkers) are now deemed "essential"--responsible for hazardous jobs at the epicenter of the Covid-19 storm. Yet while some unionized workers have secured hazard pay and protective gear, millions of these workers on the pandemic's front lines remain in or near poverty and without adequate healthcare or safety protections. Now they're striking back, shining a spotlight on the struggles of low-wage workers laboring amid viral hazards while corporations like Amazon and Instacart report booming business and profits.
Even as unemployment skyrockets above 20% (with an astounding 30 million new claims since the beginning of March), Amazon alone is raking in $11,000 per second and its shares are rising, the Guardian reports. The company's CEO Jeff Bezos, meanwhile, has seen his personal fortune bloat to $138 billion amid the pandemic.
Protesting unsafe conditions and lack of hazard pay for many employees, Target Workers Unite is waging a mass sickout of the retail chain's workers, stating, "We want to shut down industry across the board and pushback with large numbers against the right-wing groups that want to risk our lives by reopening the economy."
On its website, the group describes "atrocious" foot traffic in stores, "putting us at needless risk when greater safety measures are required to ensure social distancing. Workers nor guests have been required to wear masks...Our maximum capacity of guests have been set too high."
Whole Worker, a movement of Whole Foods workers pushing for unionization, plans a mass "sickout" for what is also being called #EssentialWorkersDay. Workers at the non-union corporate chain, which is owned by billionaire Bezos, are demanding guaranteed paid leave for employees who self-quarantine, reinstating healthcare coverage for part-time and seasonal workers, and the immediate shutdown of any store where a worker tests positive for Covid-19. According to organizers, 254 Whole Foods workers have tested positive for the virus nationwide, and two have died.
Gig economy workers for Instacart, the app-propelled tech corporation that dispatches "shoppers" for customers, will wage their second work stoppage in a month, after a March 30 strike demanding hazard pay, paid sick leave and safety protections. Despite Instacart's booming business amid the Covid-19 pandemic, "Most workers STILL haven't been able to order, let alone receive, proper PPE," according to the Gig Workers Collective.
This week, dozens of workers at an Amazon fulfillment center warehouse in Tracy, CA walked off the job after learning that a co-worker who had tested positive for Covid-19 had died. One employee told a local television station, "We are short handed now working extra hard, and I'm questioning what I'm still doing here honestly...I'm actually nervous now and wondering if it's even worth coming."
Citing a "lack of response from this government in terms of PPE and mandatory [safety] standards," the AFL-CIO will be supporting and "uplifting" striking workers at Amazon, Target, Instacart and elsewhere who are "risking their lives every day on the job," said spokesperson Kalina Newman. "While our affiliates who work with retail workers, UFCW and RWDSU, aren't helping organize the May Day strikes, they may uplift them. At the end of the day, we support workers who are standing up for their rights."
In an email, Newman elaborated that the AFL-CIO is encouraging union members "to contact their congressperson stressing that the coronavirus relief packages approved so far leave many working families behind, including hardworking immigrants who provide essential services."
Since the pandemic began, union workers at Safeway, Stop & Shop and Kroger's have won hazard pay and protective equipment guarantees, Newman added, following pressure from the United Food and Commercial Workers.
Other prominent labor groups are backing the May Day strike actions. Jobs With Justice "is supporting worker walkouts across the country, from Amazon workers to Instacart drivers," and will be "standing in solidarity with workers who are walking off the job and demanding safer working conditions," organizing director Nafisah Ula said in an email.
A range of other groups, including the Democratic Socialists of America and new grassroots initiatives like Coronastrike will also be backing up the workers on May Day. Launched by Occupy Wall Street alumni, Coronastrike aims to "amplify the efforts and voices of those striking," says organizer Yolian Ogbu, a 20-year-old climate justice activist.
"We're frustrated by the inaction by these corporations," Ogbu adds. "There is all this pent-up energy, and we're asking people to put it somewhere. People are desperate."
According to Fight for 15, the nationwide coalition for a $15 federal minimum wage, fast food workers have already been striking for fair wages and safety protections as they attempt to survive low-wage work and exposure to Covid-19. Since the pandemic began, fast food workers have walked off the job in Los Angeles, Oakland, Chicago, Memphis, Miami, St. Louis and other major cities, demanding personal protective equipment, hazard pay and paid sick leave.
In early April, hundreds of workers from more than 50 fast-food restaurants across California--including McDonald's, Taco Bell, Burger King and Domino's--walked out of work to demand better pay and safety protections, Vice reported. This week, Arby's workers in Morris, Illinois, walked out in the middle of their shift to protest conditions and climbed into their with windows festooned with big posters stating, "We don't want to die for fries," and "Hazard pay and PPE now!" They are demanding $3 per hour in added hazard pay and say the corporation has not provided masks or any other protective gear.
Since March, there have already reportedly been at least 140 documented wildcat strikes across the country.
As the Covid-19 pandemic intensifies and exposes America's inequalities, workers, so long stifled and embattled, are showing renewed force.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular