Increasing cash available to poor countries seen as key to global climate deal, but NGOs say rich are not stepping up
Discussions run from 13-16 July (Flickr/UNECA)
By Megan Darby
Some 193 countries have adopted an agreement to increase finance flows to the developing world, at a summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The “action agenda” includes a call on rich countries to meet their commitment to mobilise US$100 billion a year from 2020 to deal with climate change.
This is seen as key to unlocking a meaningful global climate deal in Paris this December, as well as agreeing post-2015 sustainable development goals.
UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon said: “This agreement is a critical step forward in building a sustainable future for all. It provides a global framework for financing sustainable development.”
Report: Fossil fuels are the ‘enemy’, OECD chief tells Addis finance meet
Development groups criticised the summit for yielding no new money to end poverty and little to overhaul the international financial system, however.
Danny Sriskandarajah, head of Civicus, a global alliance of civil society organisations, expressed disappointment.
“The outcome will not deliver the reforms we need in areas like tax… that are needed to increase the resources available for development,” he said.
Rich countries “seem unable or unwilling to increase official aid flows,” he added, “which stand at a fraction of what they themselves promised years ago.”
And emerging powers like Brazil and India are demanding new ways of working, bringing in their own institutions like a BRICS development bank.
#FFD3 fails to offer new resources or new sources of finance to dvlpng nations to deal w/ new challenge of #ClimateChange they didn’t create
— Harjeet Singh (@harjeet11) July 16, 2015
So #ffd3 agreement published. Good on pledge for social compact for poorest, but @odidev research shows more funds needed to deliver
— Ishbel Matheson (@ishbelmatheson) July 16, 2015
#FFD3 A deal is done, we are not done. We will fight on for #TaxJustice @GlobalTaxBody.
— Winnie Byanyima (@Winnie_Byanyima) July 15, 2015