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United Nations on Climate Change: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that the climate change disaster is spiraling out of control. He said that the climate crisis is an economic disaster. The UN chief also recommended developed countries to fulfill their financial promises. He said that as the Finance Minister, you know all this very well. Hurricanes, floods, fires and droughts are rapidly destroying economies around the world.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrives at the 11th Ministerial Meeting of Finance Ministers on Climate Change. Speaking on the occasion, Guterres warned that climate change was rapidly destroying money that should be used to build roads, educate children and treat the sick.
In this regard, the Independent High-Level Expert Group on Climate Finance, co-chaired by economists Vera Songwe and Nicholas Stern, reported that reforming multilateral development banks could increase annual capacity by 40%, although (about $300- 400 billion). Meanwhile, Guterres has asked all countries to improve their climate plans. He said we can still avoid the worst of the climate crisis by limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, but only if we act now. It is important that all countries come forward with Nationally Determined Contributions by next year.
Need to improve the business model of banks
Guterres said these plans should be consistent with a 1.5-degree limit, covering all emissions and the entire economy. Finance ministers play a key role in designing national climate plans, which support national development plans and also serve as national investment plans. Guterres said that developed countries need to fulfill their promises on the budget.
He further said that we need strong financial results from COP29 this year. At the same time, we need financial instruments, adequate capitalization and business model reforms to increase the lending capacity of multilateral development banks and to mobilize more private money elsewhere.
The burden on small countries increased
Guterres said that at the 15th UNFCCC conference in Copenhagen in 2009, developed countries had called for a collective target of mobilizing $100 billion per year by 2020 for climate action in developing countries. Although the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development said in 2023 that the 2009 COP 15 climate agreement was expected to yield $100 billion last year, this has not yet been shared, according to developing country parties. He also said that most of the money is based on debt and not funds, due to which the debt of small countries has increased.
Meanwhile Professor Miles Allen, head of climate science at the University of Oxford's physics department, warned that some approaches to curbing global warming, including geo-engineering, could threaten geopolitical stability. Meanwhile, the level we are at now. Continued dependence on fossil fuels at that level will increase instability.
