Wealthy Countries Contribute Less than Poor Ones to Fighting Climate Change By: Orinoco Tribune

​People filling up tanks with water from a truck. Photo: Vincent Tremeau.

There is no doubt that the countries that pollute the most are the developed and industrialized ones, and, therefore, they should be the ones that provide the most resources to curb climate change. However, an investigation revealed that rich countries apply deceptive and dishonest practices to exaggerate the climate financing they provide to developing countries.

“Contributions from rich countries not only remain well below target, they are misleading by accounting for climate financing in a way that is neither correct nor adequate,” said Nafkote Dabi, the climate change policy spokesperson for Oxfam International, the group leading the investigation.

What is the real value of climate financing? According to Oxfam research, in 2020 it was between $21 billion and $24.5 billion, compared to the figure of $68.3 billion that wealthy countries claimed they contributed in public financing.

​Other data:
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• In total, including private financing, wealthy nations proclaimed that they contributed $83.3 billion, which likely constitutes an overestimation of 225%.
• The global climate finance target is set at $100 billion annually. Thus, even with the artificially inflated numbers, the goal is not being met.
• Excessive lending is placing poor countries deeper in debt while they remain unprepared to deal with the climate crisis.
• Funded projects often have a lesser climate focus than declared.
• “Forcing poor countries to repay loans in order to deal with the climate crisis to which they have barely contributed is deeply unfair,” the report says.
• Wealthy nations do not support countries facing droughts, cyclones and floods; they put them in debt.
• All financing is overestimated, including that of multilateral entities such as the World Bank.
• If developed countries would honor their commitments and truly address their climate finance accounting errors, it would be possible to avert a large-scale climate catastrophe.
• Poor countries pay more and pollute less.

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Orinoco Tribune

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This article was republished from Orinoco Tribune. 

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