The Global Climate Finance Black Hole: $2 out of $3 doesn’t reach its destination

Also financed a coal plant and hotels on the coast

(sustainabilityenvironment.com) – At the COP28 in Dubai we will talk a lot about climate finance. Finally, the rich countries have reached the goal of mobilizing $ 100 billion per year, but we must set the new post-2025 target, start closing the financial gap for adaptation to the climate crisis, and make operational the Loss and Damage Mechanism that will help the most vulnerable countries not to end up crushed by the impact of climate change. But above all, the COP28 climate conference has to change dramatically from the way climate finance has been made available so far. The reason? About $2 out of 3 pledged was never paid out, or ended up in projects that have little to do with the contrast of the climate crisis.

To reveal this is a report by ONE Campaign, which has reckoned in the pocket of finance for the climate promised by countries with the most advanced economies between 2013 and 2021. The data comes from the official reporting of the states, on which the elaborations of the OECD and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are based.

Where does climate finance go?

The total theoretical, or declared, of finance for the climate mobilized in the period under examination reaches 343 billion dollars. But many vulnerable countries have received far fewer resources than those promised. Particularly in Africa. According to data from the advocacy group, Nigeria got 75% less than agreed, a shortfall of $4.5 billion. Kenya missed the same amount. While Senegal received $2.8 billion less than was promised.

Of the funds earmarked, again in theory, for projects and interventions to combat the climate crisis and improve mitigation and adaptation measures, a not-so-small part has been allocated to anything else. Analyzing the data, ONE Campaign notes that climate finance has even been channelled into the construction of a coal-fired power plant, or on works that have nothing to do with climate change as a hotel on the coast.

“There is no verification or control whatsoever of what is reported,” he told Reuters, who saw the report preview, David McNair, executive director of the association’s global policy. “There is no kind of responsibility”.