BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 24. Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention (UNFCCC) on Climate Change Simon Stiell has urged the world's countries to urgently make serious progress on climate finance, Trend reports.
Addressing the Sustainable Investment Forum at Climate Week in New York on September 24, Stiell stated, “We need a new agreement on climate finance. I intentionally say 'agreement' because this is not just about numbers that define how much funding we need. It's about a commitment to ensure that funds flow now. From more sources. Yes, we are talking about public and concessional finance, but also a mix of finance that will be backed by serious reform of development banks and much more ambitious climate policies by governments. Serious progress on this issue is urgently needed, both at the climate negotiations in Baku this year (COP29) and at the G20 ministerial level, because developed countries are shareholders in the major development banks”.
Stiell emphasized that the vast majority of money for green projects goes to projects in the largest economies, meaning that the powerful clean energy trend is not evenly embodied.
“Yes, it's clear that there is a lot of energy demand in developed economies and a lot of emissions that need to be reduced...But on the other hand, that means that there are significant missed opportunities everywhere else that most investors are still not taking advantage of. To put it bluntly: if more and more emerging economies do not receive this growing flow of climate investment, we will soon be permanently entrenching a dangerously uneven global transformation “at two speeds.” That is, in the “far left lane” are businesses in the “global North” with access to capital, reaping huge profits as economic transformation gathers pace and scale. Developing countries, on the other hand, are held back by too high a cost of capital, often based on outdated or unfounded perceptions of risk in these markets, or are dragged down by mounting debt crises,” the executive secretary of the UNFCCC noted.
According to him, such injustices and imbalances are not only unacceptable but disastrous for any economy.
“First, because it will make it virtually impossible to halve global emissions by 2030 on the way to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, without which no economy, including the largest, can survive the looming climate catastrophe. Second, because supply chains are interdependent, which means our economic systems are increasingly out of balance...If an uneven 'two-speed' global transformation begins, everyone loses in the end and loses badly,” Stiell believes.
He added that the new national climate plans (NCCPs) will be among the most important policy documents produced this century, just like adaptation plans.
“We need to 'reach out' to decision-makers around the world. It is more important than ever to advocate for positions to get the message across to governments about why stepping up action on climate change and developing better plans is entirely in their interests,” Stiell opined.
To note, the 29th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) will be held in Azerbaijan in November this year. The decision was made at the plenary meeting of COP28 held in Dubai on December 11 last year. Within two weeks, Baku, having become the center of the world, will host about 70,000-80,000 foreign guests.
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change is an agreement signed at the Rio Earth Summit in June 1992 to prevent dangerous human interference in the climate system. The acronym COP (Conference of Parties) stands for Conference of Parties, which is the highest legislative body overseeing the implementation of the Framework Convention on Climate Change.
A total of 198 countries are parties to the convention. Unless the parties have decided otherwise, COP is held annually. The first COP event was held in March 1995 in Berlin, and its secretariat is located in Bonn.
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