Rich Countries Should Meet Their 2025 Target To Provide $40 Billion Of Adaptation Finance A Year In Bonn Talks
The trust between developing and developed countries is deteriorating due to missed financial commitments on climate finance
It is not only north India – Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Chhattisgarh which are facing deadly floods. Many people in the Nigerian town of Mokwa were washed away recently. The deadly floods that recently struck New South Wales (NSW), Australia. The scientists have called for planning for the possibility of even heavier downpours as the climate warms.
The study by World Weather Attribution found the wettest four-day rainfall events in a year are about 10% more intense in NSW compared to the preindustrial climate. Dr Mariam Zachariah, Research Associate at the Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London, said: “Our study found evidence that rainfall events in NSW are becoming heavier as the climate warms. “Exactly how climate change influenced the devastating May floods remains unclear.
These floods show that all these countries need adaptation plans to face the floods. Planning for heat and having heat action plans only is not enough. People around the world are feeling the effects of climate change in the form of severe floods, droughts, worsening forest fires, storms and extreme heat.
In low-income developing countries, adaptation finance is needed to help make the infrastructure and ecosystems more resilient to the impacts of climate change. Yet with each passing year the gap between the adaptation finance needed and what is available grows wider. This shows that rich countries should meet their 2025 target to provide $40 billion of adaptation finance a year. There should be a clear indicator of the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) in talks coming up in Bonn .
The trust between developing and developed countries is deteriorating due to missed financial commitments on climate finance, perceived lack of accountability and transparency, and growing economic inequality. Which undermines global cooperation on climate change leading to increased vulnerabilities.
The upcoming UNFCCC meeting in Bonn, Germany from 16 -25 June, is a crucial checkpoint on the road to COP30 in Belém. Its an opportunity to build momentum and make progress on the issues that will define the next climate summit. From climate adaptation to climate finance and nationally determined contributions , the priorities which must be advanced now to deliver results this November during COP30. The COP30 Presidency is placing adaptation at the top of the agenda for the Bonn talks, aiming to advance and conclude key mandates under this track.
A staggering 3.6 billion people according to IPCC ( International Panel On Climate Change) report— nearly half of the global population — are currently considered highly vulnerable to climate change impacts, ranging from droughts, floods and storms to heat stress and food insecurity. This number will only continue to rise as long as global temperatures keep climbing.
The Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) aims to address this shortfall by providing a clear framework and targets for measuring progress on adaptation. A well-crafted and widely supported GGA will guide global adaptation efforts by highlighting where and how adaptation plans and policies are being implemented, and which areas are falling behind.
Although the GGA was included in the Paris Agreement in 2015, the eight years that followed saw limited progress on developing it.
It complements the global mitigation goal of limiting temperature rise to 1.5°C, but unlike mitigation, adaptation is a localized process, making it more complex to define a global target.
Another crucial point on the adaptation agenda for Bonn is the advancement of National Adaptation Plans (NAPs).Since its establishment back in 2010, the NAP has helped countries identify and address their priorities for adapting to the changing climate and to include adaptation as part of their policies. It also means enhancing adaptation finance and other types of support for developing countries.
Adaptation finance includes funds flowing from developed to developing countries as well as finance that governments — in both developing and developed countries — invest to build climate resilience in their own countries.
Climate finance issue?
Rich countries are historically responsible for climate change. And despite contributing next nothing to the problem, low-income countries – especially least developed countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) – are suffering the impacts and bearing the costs. To address this imbalance, rich countries promised money to help developing countries adapt to climate change. But they have failed to deliver. As droughts and floods increase in both severity and frequency, rich countries must step up and fulfil their finance commitments.
The writer of this article is Dr. Seema Javed, an environmentalist & a communications professional in the field of climate and energy
