Wrangling over Climate Finance Language in SDG Summit Declaration
The US, the UK and a handful of developed countries have pushed back on climate finance language within a draft declaration on the SDGs ahead of the SDG summit in New York in September. Issues of contention included the manner in which calls to reform the international financial system were phrased, and the establishment of a multibillion-dollar development stimulus plan.
Ruto calls for the creation of a Global Green Bank
Kenyan President William Ruto is looking to radically shake up the global climate finance architecture, proposing that multilateral lenders provide at least $500 billion/year to settle existing debts and free up domestic resources for climate and development priorities. He also wants the establishment of a global Green Bank, financed by carbon taxes and other climate levies.
IMO Mulls a Global Shipping Levy: Africa May Lose out While Others Gain
Following the agreement of revised targets for the shipping sector, the IMO is discussing the introduction of a global shipping levy. A group of African nations initially came out in support of but then went quiet during negotiations. A recent study anticipates that African GDPs will be significantly impacted by a levy whilst the GDPs of EU and the US stand to benefit.
African Governors Propose Targeted Reforms to Climate Finance Architecture
African governors of the IMF and World Bank met in Cabo Verde to discuss reforms to the global climate finance architecture. Their clearly articulated set of proposed reforms focuses on the need to jointly address global public goods and SDGs, reduce African debt insecurities, and enable a country owned and driven approach.
The Paris Summit for a New Global Financial Pact: Our Takeaways
Having aimed low the Paris Summit for a New Global Financial Pact is difficult to criticise, but if it is to be meaningful, inputs from African countries relating to debt, and the undertakings made by and reforms proposed to global financial institutions including in relation to SDRs and the World Bank, need to be fully implemented.
AFDB Pushes to Channel SDRs for Climate Finance
The AfDB is looking to rechannel SDRs to African countries to free up fiscal space to spend on climate, but progress is slow. The bank is now looking for five developed countries to come forward with pledges
Republic of Congo Calls for REDD+ Credits to be More Accessible
Sovereign Credits present a difficult trade-off between integrity but also being fit for purpose for African countries. Republic of Congo’s Minister of Environment, is calling for the procedures to be revisited.
IMF and World Bank Kick Off Spring Meetings with Climate in Focus
The World Bank and IMF spring meetings are likely to deal with climate change through the Evolution Roadmap, letting the bank lend more money, and capital adequacy frameworks.
African Countries Again Object to US Attempts to Influence the Strategic Direction of Global Climate Funds
African governments have sought to prevent the US from co-chairing the Green Climate Fund, on the basis that it has failed to live up to its promise to deliver $2 billion in climate finance to the fund. This follows on from the unsuccessful attempt by the US to take part in negotiations on the Adaptation Fund at COP27 last year (which were objected to by South Africa), even though it was not a party to the Kyoto Protocol under which the Fund was established.
Biodiversity Gets its Paris Moment: Climate Takeaways from COP15
In the early hours of the morning on 19 December 2022, the gavel came down on the 15th COP of the Convention on Biodiversity, hosted in Montreal under the Presidency of China. The outcome of the COP is the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), the product of more than four years of global negotiations. Some of the debates at the negotiations will be familiar to veterans of the climate negotiations, including on the ambition of 2030 and 2050 targets and their specificity, a lack of finance for developing countries to meet the targets, the ability of states to determine how to meet the global targets through national planning frameworks, the ratcheting of ambition, the protection of indigenous community rights and special dispensations and considerations for small island states and least developed countries. In our analysis we highlight some of the key aspects of the GBF, particularly as they relate to climate, focusing on the main targets agreed to. We also discuss the debates around finance, explaining why the DRC understandably objected to the final package that was presented. Lastly, we unpack the interlinkages between two regimes and how they can learn from each other going forward.
