LettersHong Kong can help bridge the world’s climate funding gap
- Readers discuss Hong Kong’s role in transforming global finance, whale watchers and the government’s response to the whale sighting
Developing countries face an investment deficit of US$4 trillion annually, according to recent Unctad estimates, which seriously constrains their progress on climate resilience and other development priorities.
Last month’s UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development highlighted the urgent need for an integrated approach to climate-resilient, equitable development, given the sluggish progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. However, lack of financing and enduring divisions between the developed and developing worlds continue to stand in the way.
Developed cities and countries could help bridge this gap by strategically directing their expertise, technology and financing towards developing regions. Here, sustainability leaders such as Hong Kong could offer key insights.
Currently, climate finance flows are failing to reach the most vulnerable. Although global climate finance more than doubled from US$360 billion in 2011 to over US$850 billion in 2021, three-quarters of it was concentrated in higher-income regions, bypassing the poorer nations at the greatest risk from climate change, according to Climate Policy Initiative data.