Category: Climate Finance

At the most recent meeting on the new climate finance target in Cartagena, countries redrew the same battle lines as last year’s loss and damage fund deliberations around who will pay, when, how much and for what actions. While there was some consensus on the framework for the text of the new goal, we are still very far from consensus on its substance.

We spoke with Nomasango Masiye Moyo, an attorney at Natural Justice, about the pending request for an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on liability for climate change and the relatively muted response by African governments.

Ahead of the upcoming climate finance meeting in Colombia this month, African countries have laid out an ambitious approach to the new collective quantified goal on climate finance, arguing for it to be based on the actual needs of countries and not just a political figure.

A recent UN Resolution to develop a global tax convention might stem illicit financial flows and create a more equitable and beneficial tax regime for Africa. The continent has long been championing these reforms, both to better its fiscal health and to enable domestic climate change responses.

At their annual meetings in Marrakesh this month, the World Bank and IMF agreed to some incremental reforms, including increasing IMF lending resources, representation for Africa on the IMF Executive Board, and quicker administrative processes for World Bank lending. However, little was achieved on debt reform or capital increases for the Bank.

Looking towards the IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings on 9 October in Marrakech, expectations are that climate related reforms should go beyond much needed capital increases and the re-channeling of SDRs. We discuss a recent report by the African Climate Foundation of what these reforms should entail.