By Megan Rowling
PARIS - The world's 48
poorest countries will need to find around a trillion dollars between 2020 and
2030 to achieve their plans to tackle climate change - and those plans should
be a priority for international funding, researchers said.
Estimates based on plans
submitted by the least-developed countries (LDCs) toward a new U.N. deal to
curb global warming show they will cost around $93.7 billion a year from 2020,
when an agreement expected to be ironed out in Paris over the next two weeks is
due to take effect.
That includes $53.8
billion annually to reduce emissions and $39.9 billion to deal with more
extreme weather and rising seas, according to a report from the London-based
International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).
IIED Director Andrew
Norton said the least-developed countries currently get less than a third of
all international climate funding provided by wealthy governments.
"A fair and
effective deal at Paris should prioritise the investment of international
public climate finance for this group to implement their climate action plans,
while agreeing measures to help better-off countries attract private climate
finance," he said in a statement.
The least-developed
countries - from Ethiopia to Zambia, and Yemen and Pacific island nations - are
home to some of the poorest communities who are suffering the worst impacts of
intensifying droughts, floods, storms and crumbling coastlines.
Yet they produce just a
tiny fraction of the planet-warming gases that drive climate change.
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| Adama wind farm,Addis Ababa,Ethiopia.REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri |
Such countries have a
widespread lack of resources and expertise to tackle climate change. However,
nearly all have produced so-called Intended Nationally Determined Contributions
(INDCs) to a new global climate deal.
These plans set out how
they will curb their emissions from 2020 - by shifting to renewable power
sources, such as solar, or building cleaner public transport, for example.
They also outline what
countries need to do to help their people live better with climate change
impacts. In some cases, they say how much all this action will cost.
The IIED report noted
that three countries - Burkina Faso, Djibouti, and Zambia - are showing
"extraordinary commitment" by aiming to find more finance within
their borders than beyond them.
"Even so, all LDCs
agree that fulfilling their INDCs cannot be done without a significant
contribution from international climate finance, whether it be public or
private," it said.
The least-developed
countries "cannot hope to implement their INDCs quickly enough
alone", it added.
The countries will
require technology sharing and help to build their capacity, as well as
investment capital, particularly for high start-up costs. Much of the money
must come from international sources, the report said.
On Monday, 11 donor
governments pledged close to $250 million in new money for adaptation in the
poorest countries at the start of the U.N. climate talks.
Canada, Denmark, Finland,
France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, Britain, and the United
States announced contributions to a climate fund for the least-developed
countries hosted by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
It had been struggling to
finance projects due to a lack of new support.
"We know that many
billions are required over the next few years to fill the gap in climate
finance, but the money pledged today is vital to help some of the most
vulnerable people on the planet cope with the immediate impacts of our rapidly
warming world," said GEF head Naoko Ishii.
Read the full story at Building
Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Extremes and Disasters (BRACED)
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