EU economy and finance ministers, meeting in Luxembourg on Tuesday 11 October, reiterated that the EU and its member states would take their fair share of the $100 billion per year promised by the industrialised countries by 2020 to support mitigation (reducing greenhouse gas emissions) and adaptation to climate change efforts in developing countries.
They restated, too, that would ensure the scaling up of public resources for this purpose. Nonetheless, to the great regret of NGOs, they have not so far given any figures or indicated how what they will do.
A figure will be made public before COP 22 in Marrakesh (7-18 November) and a further figure will be established for 2025, in line with the Paris Agreement, states the Economy and Finance Council in unanimously approved conclusions. These conclusions and those adopted by the Environment Council on 30 September constitute the EU’s negotiating mandate for COP 22 (see EUROPE 11636).
The Council asks the Commission to provide an overview on climate finance from the EU and its member states, with consolidated figures for individual contributions, for 2015. By 3 October, 18 member states had communicated their figure to the Commission.
The collective (EU plus its member states) figure will be put to member states’ ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) before being publicly announced, probably at the start of November.
“Climate change is undoubtedly a very serious global challenge and swift action remains a top priority for the EU. Public climate finance will continue to play a pivotal role”, stated Slovak Finance Minister Peter Kazimir, following the meeting he chaired. He made the point that climate finance requires a wide range of sources, including innovative sources.
While industrialised countries must take the lead in terms of finance, as made clear in the Paris Agreement, which also encourages other countries to become involved, the Council points out that “the EU and its member states provide a substantial part of public climate finance”. It underlines “the need for fair burden sharing amongst developed countries and the future participation of a broader range of contributors”. The ministers, here, have China and India in mind.
In response to EUROPE who asked about the contribution of France to helping developing countries adapt to climate change, French minister Michel Sapin said that a €2 billion recapitalisation would allow the French development agency, AFD, to leverage funding and that the draft budget for 2017 contained an increase in development funding. “France will fully respect the commitments it made at the climate conference”, he stated.
Lack of clarity. The NGO Climate Action Network Europe (CAN Europe) welcomed the renewed commitment by finance ministers to provide public funding to address both the causes and the effects of climate change. It condemned, however, the lack of clarity on how support for international climate action will be scaled up. “The language is too weak, further exposing the reticence of finance ministers to commit predictable and adequate support for climate action. EU member states continue to sidestep the crucial question of how they will scale up support for adaptation and loss and damage”, stated Maeve McLynn, of CAN Europe. Hurricane Matthew, she said, provides a harsh reminder that the world is not doing enough to support vulnerable countries in adapting to the devastating impacts of climate change. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang and Mathieu Bion)