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TWN Info Service
on Climate Change (Oct21/08) AGN Press Statement: Group welcomes the report on the finance needs of developing countries as the basis of the Glasgow Climate Finance Package Libreville, Gabon, 18 October: With less than 2 weeks before Parties to the UNFCCC and its Paris Agreement converge on Glasgow, Scotland, a key preparatory session to prepare for the climate finance component on the climate summit concluded with mixed results. Speaking at the conclusion of the twenty-sixth meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance (SCF), the Chair of the African Group of Negotiators (AGN) under the UNFCCC, Mr. Tanguay Gahouma (Gabon) welcomed the approval of the first report on the determination of the needs of developing countries, but also noted that progress on other Committee matters were inconclusive and negotiations were complicated. He said, the needs determination report (NDR) is a seminal moment in the climate negotiations, filling a gap in the previously unmet legal obligation for the UNFCCC to determine “in a predictable and identifiable manner the amount of funding necessary and available for the implementation of this Convention and the conditions under which that amount shall be periodically reviewed.” He further noted “the Glasgow meeting will be first time in 26 years that the legal obligation will be applied, and the AGN members look forward to this historical moment to make sure climate finance responds to the urgent needs and priorities of developing countries, particularly with upcoming replenishment negotiations under the two operating entities of the financial mechanism of the Convention.” The eighth replenishment of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) is currently underway and will conclude in 2022, while the second replenishment of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) will start in the last quarter of 2022. According to Zaheer Fakir (South Africa), one of the African SCF members and co-facilitator of the NDR, “the report represents the first time ever that the UNFCCC has attempted to quantify the climate finance needs of developing countries since adoption of the Convention. It lays bare the woefully inadequate levels of finance provided and mobilised, particularly the US$ 100bn goal and a beacon for the level of ambition in finance required by developing countries especially in the GEF and GCF replenishments,” he said. Developed countries have repeatedly refused to fulfil the obligation, however at COP24 held in Katowice, Poland in 2018, Parties requested the SCF prepare, every four years, a report on the determination of the needs of developing country Parties related to implementing the Convention and the Paris Agreement. According to the AGN Chair the report will also feed into the deliberations on how developed countries meet their obligations under the Paris Agreement regarding the finance target between 2021-2025, and the process to determine a new post 2025 global goal. In September, the African Ministerial Conference on Environment, Ministers concluded that the new post 2025 climate finance mobilization goal be based on a commitment from “developed countries to mobilize jointly at least USD 1.3 trillion per year by 2030, of which 50% for mitigation and 50% for adaptation and a significant percentage on grant basis from a floor of USD 100 billion.” The SCF also concluded is work and adopted the technical report of the Fourth (2020) Biennial Assessment and Overview of Climate Finance Flows (BA). The report presents an updated overview and trends in climate finance flows up until 2018 and assesses their implications for international efforts to address climate change. The report concludes that global climate finance flows were 16% higher in 2017-2018 than in 2015-2016, to reach an annual average of USD 775 billion. However, discussions on a set of recommendations to the COP were met with very divergent views from the developed and developing country SCF members. According to Amb. Mohammed Nasr (Egypt) also a African SCF member, “one of the most contested issues was the matter of the SCF undertaking further work on the operational definition of climate finance and how to ensure that this definition is widely used both in reporting and also in assessing projects and programs by climate finance contributors to avoid challenges faced in some climate funds.” The BA report also contains for the first time a mapping of relevant information to the long-term goal outlined in Article 2, paragraph 1(c) of the Paris Agreement on making finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development. African Ministers have stressed the importance of the Just Transition when making financial flows consistent with the pathway and underscores the opportunity for African countries to increase climate investment flows tied to the global low-emission and climate resilience shift. According to the Chair, the Ministers have mandated negotiators to work towards a Glasgow outcome based on a just and equitable implementation of Article 2.1c, including a common understanding and clear guidelines towards its implementation by Parties, the operating entities of the financial mechanism, international financial institutions, and other stakeholders in the financial sector. Mr. Tanguy Gahouma
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