Developing Asia’s climate-financing ‘have-nots’ plead for long-term solutions but get stuck with quick fixes
- Most funding from developed nations goes to mitigation, but vulnerable countries like Pakistan want money for long-term adaptation to climatic effects
- One negotiator said mitigation projects were popular with donors because of their instant impact, while adaptation projects were less tangible
With rich and developing countries still at odds over who is going to pay for the exorbitant impact of climate change and how, experts say developing Asian nations will struggle to strike a balance between mitigating the effects of global warming and adapting to it.
“Unfortunately, developing Asian countries are mired in poverty, exclusion and marginalisation, and many are affected by conflicts within and across their borders, which rightly makes them a not-very lucrative place for investment,” said Abid Qayyum Sulehri, executive director of the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, an Islamabad-based think tank.
He said they have “already become the have-nots” of climate financing because current mechanisms require “very tedious, very cumbersome” data. Strict conditions are often also placed on loans to developing countries by the International Monetary Fund and other such multilateral lenders.
The draft COP27 deal shows that developed countries remain deeply reluctant to compensate their poorer counterparts, whether with cash grants or debt relief.
Developed nations provided US$83.3 billion in 2020, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development reported in July.