At the recent Bonn Climate Change Conference (SB58), CPDE continued to push for the effective climate finance agenda as a means to meaningfully respond to the worsening crisis, and in line with the campaign towards a just transition.
CPDE’s positions around climate finance are articulated in its policy brief, titled Operationalising effectiveness principles for a fit-for-purpose global climate finance architecture.
In the said paper, the civil society platform discusses main problems with the current climate finance regime:
- Funds are not compensatory. Climate finance is increasingly taking the form of loans which means that funds are owed to donors, turning the obligatory relationship around;
- Funds are unpredictable. The discretionary nature of climate funds results in financial inadequacy and unpredictability, leading to delays in urgent adaptation and mitigation actions in poor countries and hampering their compensation by the North;
- Funds are not new and additional. Funds do not represent new and additional funding as some developed countries continue to count their climate funds as part of their Official Development Assistance (ODA);
- Donors control the funds and dictate the agenda. The existing global climate finance governance structures preserve the inequitable and unaccountable control of resources by the North and corporations;
- The corporatisation of the climate funds. There is a push to mobilise private finance to bridge the gap between commitments and actual climate finance delivered by developed countries. This undermines the essential role played by public finance in ensuring country ownership and people-centered development in climate response, but also promotes/allows for some of the main polluters (including fossil fuel related corporations) to greenwash their activities.
- Climate impact relevance of projects are overestimated: current climate finance reporting system allows for the overestimation of the climate component or relevance of projects by countries and multilateral development banks.
- Not aligned with just transition. The current financial architecture is being conditioned and co-opted by narratives around “nature-based solutions” which are unsustainable and not in line with workers’ and people’s common perspectives on Green Jobs a Just Transition production, distribution, and consumption systems.
In response, CPDE operationalises the four effectiveness principles (country ownership, focus on results, inclusive partnerships, and transparency and mutual accountability) in climate finance:
- Democratic country ownership. Developing countries must have the space to define and achieve their own objectives and exercise effective leadership over their respective development strategies, policies, and programs to attain climate resiliency. It is essential to this agenda to uphold the principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR), particularly in the context of the discussions on the New Collective Quantified Goal for Climate Finance.
- Focus on the needs of the most climate vulnerable. Climate finance must reach the countries and communities most in need: the indigenous peoples, farming communities, coastal communities, urban slums, fisher folk, rural women, children, among other marginalised groups. In line with this, funding modalities need to be simple and accessible.
- Inclusive climate policymaking and governance. Countries should institutionalise engagement mechanisms, and communities must have a principal role in the identification, definition, implementation, and evaluation of programs, projects and activities for mitigation and adaptation. Moreover, it is important for donors, CSOs and other stakeholders to work together to put communities in the center, build local knowledge and learning on the ground. CSOs, as development actors in their own right and frontline respondents to the impacts of climate change, should be funded to respond.
- Transparency and mutual accountability. The administration of climate finance demands publicly available comprehensive, accurate, and timely information on a funding channel’s structure, financial data, governance and decision-making bodies, project preparation documents, actual funding decisions, and disbursements made, as well as implementation results.
CPDE shared these positions to partners who attended #SB58, most of whom were part of the Demand Climate Justice, a network of civil society organisations working on climate justice.
Organised by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the SB58 is a key milestone and preparatory event in the lead up to the 28th Conference of Parties (COP), which will be held in Dubai in 30 November to 12 December this year.#
Photo by Marie Jacquemin of Climate Action Network
