WHO WILL PAY FOR WHAT?
But perhaps the biggest omission is the absence of firm promises by rich countries to help their poorer cousins meet the commitment to ditch fossil fuels by mid-century. Developing nations will need at least US$6 trillion in financing by 2030 to reach this goal, the UN has estimated. The new COP deal vaguely waves a hand at that mountain of money without getting into details about who will pay for what.
This helps explain why Saudi Arabia and other OPEC nations weren’t the only ones resisting calling for a “phase-out” of fossil fuels. Developing countries had strong reservations about it, too. Without the money to switch from dirty to clean energy, these countries risk hobbling their economies before they even get a chance to grow.
The US, Europe and China all had the luxury of burning copious amounts of coal, oil and gas to get wealthy. It would be unfair to force developing nations to miss that chance, consigning billions to poverty, without at least helping them find a better way.
“Finance is where the whole energy transition plan will stand or fall,” Mohamed Adow, director and founder of Power Shift Africa, a Kenyan advocacy group, said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “This process might deliver an agreement to move away from fossil fuels, but it’s failing to deliver a plan to fund it.”
The COP28 deal does at least acknowledge developing nations need help and possibly a little extra time to transition, which is probably why they signed off on it. But the wording is far too vague and demands nothing of those rich, polluting countries.
Source: CNA
