$2.4trn investment needed yearly for climate solutions – UN Climate agency

The Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change, Simon Stiell, says a whopping 2.4 trillion dollars is needed yearly for investment in climate issues in developing countries.

Stiell stated this in a speech he delivered in Baku, Azerbaijan, host city of the COP29 UN Climate Conference scheduled for November.

Our correspondent reports that speech is previewing the key issues and actions needed in the crucial periods ahead, building on progress at COP28 in Dubai.

The executive secretary of the UN agency noted that the amount is what the High-Level Expert Group on Climate Finance estimates, said is needed for renewable energy, adaptation, and other climate-related issues in developing countries, excluding China.

“Whether on slashing emissions or building climate-resilience, it’s already blazingly obvious that finance is the make-or-break factor in the world’s climate fight – in quantity, quality, and innovation.

“In fact, without far more finance, 2023’s climate wins will quickly fizzle away into more empty promises.

“The New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance must be agreed. Countries must be confident that they will be able to rapidly access sufficient concessional support.

With finance, as with other commitments, transparency is essential for building trust, delivering impact and therefore forging more ambitious commitments.

“Climate finance must not be quietly pilfered from aid budgets. And it must be designed to be leveraged, driving and protecting development gains, whilst delivering concrete implementation of climate action,” he said.

According to him, 2024 is the year multi-lateral development banks must demonstrate – with concrete actions – their centrality in the world’s climate fight, and their determination to deliver impact at scale.

He urged them to take bold steps towards financial innovation that will double, if not triple, their collective financial capacity by 2030 – particularly with respect to grants and concessional finance.

He described 2023 as the hottest year on record by a huge margin, saying it would take an Olympian effort over the next two years to put the world on track to where it is need to be in 2030 and 2050.

“In fact, the action we take in the next two years will shape how much climate-driven destruction we can avoid over the next two decades, and far beyond.

“The Olympic motto ‘faster, higher, stronger’ should be our shared climate mantra.

“UN Climate Change will be stepping up to help coordinate the support available for countries to build the capacity needed to deliver NDCs, NAPs, and BTRs, working with all those active in this space.

“We have already proven we can meet the challenge ahead, having bent the curve of expected global temperature rise from nearly five degrees, to three, closer to 2.5 through UN-convened global cooperation.

“Whilst last year’s agreement on the Global Stocktake at COP28 was far from perfect, it would have been unthinkable just a few years ago, and sends a very strong signal about the inevitability of global decarbonisation.

“But now is no time for victory laps. It’s time to get on with the job,” said the head of the UN agency.