Dear Ministers:
With the rising impacts of severe climate change, now is the time for developed countries to scale up climate finance rather than pulling back from it. Droughts, storms and heat waves all demand climate action — and action requires finance. Developing countries can’t survive without action.
Yet many developed countries seem to be failing in committing this. And now they’re hiding behind slippery words.
When you apply the word ‘continuation’ to climate finance, it might sound applicable at first hearing; but when you look more closely, you realize that continuing doesn’t tell you how much will continue: $10? $25? $1,000?
Some European countries have pledged finance for the upcoming period, but where are the other developed countries — like the US, Japan, Canada or Australia? It would be appropriate for them and others to join in a common finance commitment. It’s not enough to rely on just a few countries to step up and pledge at the podium — we need everyone at the altar, committing together in a decision at Doha.
If you leave Doha without that collective decision, the commitment to reaching $100 billion dollars per annum by 2020 will be on the way to becoming an unreachable fantasy, with the future of a successful ADP hanging in the balance, and the survival of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable at far greater risk.