The former president of the United States Barack Obama on Monday he supported the countries most at risk from global warming, and called on wealthy nations to release, after years of stagnation, money to help fight climate change in the developing world.
At the beginning of the second and last week of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Glasgow – known as COP26– Ministers dedicated themselves to trying to deliver on promises, loss of pay and climate-related damage, and to addressing how to help countries adapt to the effects of climate change.
“We have to act now to help adaptation and resilience,” he said. Obama in a gathering of island nations at the summit, adding that his take on the immediacy of the threat came from his experience growing up in Hawaii.
We’ve done some important work since the Paris Agreement was signed six year ago, but we’re still nowhere near where we need to be on climate. Watch live from #COP26 in Glasgow as I talk about the steps we can take to combat climate change. https://t.co/fpoGbnNehm
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama)
November 8, 2021
The failure of rich countries to deliver aid to developing countries has caused mistrust and is seen as a major obstacle to progress in reducing emissions to limit the devastating impact of global warming.
The online activist network Avaaz posted a video showing that Obama it had made the same call for action rather than words to help poor countries as early as 2009, but with little success in subsequent years.
“Everybody knows what to do,” said Kenyan Environment Minister Keriako Tobiko. “There have been many and too many workshops, retreats and conferences. And they always say ‘the moment is now’, ‘the moment has come’. Actually there is no more time, let’s put the money on the table.”
At a climate summit of the HIM-HER-IT Held 12 years ago in Copenhagen, rich countries pledged to give developing countries $ 100 billion a year by 2020 to help them adapt to climate change.
The objective was not met, and in the COP26 Richer nations have said they will meet the target by 2023 at the latest, but some hope it can be met a year earlier.
In recent weeks and months, rich countries, such as the United States, Japan, Spain and Italy, have increased their promises of “climate finance”, but some still fall short of what international bodies consider a fair contribution.
The head of Ghana’s Environmental Protection Agency, Henry Kokofu, said negotiations on adaptation and resilience funds for countries hardest hit by climate change do not reflect publicly expressed ambition by developed countries.
“It is very unfortunate and sad,” he added.
Different priorities
While developing countries want more money to help them adapt to higher temperatures, which have led to more frequent droughts, floods and wildfires, developed nations have focused on channeling funding toward reducing emissions.
The cost of both is enormous, but it will be even greater unless the conversations of Glasgow can keep alive a goal that dates back to the conversations of the UN in Paris in 2015 to keep global warming below 1.5 Celsius above the pre-industrial level.
Beyond that height, the world risks devastating climatic consequences.
Obama said that the Paris Agreement who helped negotiate had created a framework to address the climate change, but that very little had been done since then.
“We are nowhere near where we need to go,” he told the Glasgow audience, chiding the leaders of China and Russia, two of the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitters, for not even attending the summit.
His “national plans so far reflect what appears to be a dangerous lack of urgency and a willingness to maintain the status quo, and that is a disgrace,” he said.
The activist Greta Thunberg He has already called the talks, which are due to end on Friday, a “failure.”
Underlining the difficulties, the president of the COP26Alok Sharma said there was a desire from the parties to “continue technical work with a new urgency to move forward” on climate finance, where there were “a large number of outstanding issues”. “My priority now is rhythm,” he added. “There has to be a sense of urgency in all of our negotiations.”
Probably more problematic for wealthy nations than hitting the $ 100 billion target is how they should compensate less developed countries for losses and damage caused by historic emissions, an area in which concrete promises have yet to be made.
Sharma acknowledged that this was a subject that has historically divided, but stated that he believed that “ambient music has changed a bit.”
“There is now a practical recognition that action is needed on this issue in the face of mounting impacts,” he said.
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Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx