The Paris summit on finance and climate comes to an end. Time for concrete steps?
Climate activists Patience Nabukalu, of Uganda, left, and Mitzi Jonelle Tan, of the Philippines, participate in a demonstration ahead of the Global Climate Finance Summit, Wednesday, June 21, 2023 in Paris. The aim of a two-day climate and finance summit in Paris that ends Friday, June 23, was to set up concrete measures to help poor and developing countries better tackle issues like poverty and climate change. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)
CEO of the European Climate Foundation Laurence Tubiana, from left, climate activists Ineza Grace, of Rwanda, Vanessa Nakate, of Uganda, Helena Gualinga, of Ecuador, Mitzi Jonelle Tan, of the Philippines, and Greta Thunberg, of Sweden, attend a news conference in Paris, June 22, 2023. The aim of a two-day climate and finance summit in Paris that ends Friday, June 23, was to set up concrete measures to help poor and developing countries better tackle issues like poverty and climate change. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly, File)
- Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva speaks during the Power Our Planet concert on the sideline of the Climate Finance conference in Paris, June 22, 2023. The aim of a two-day climate and finance summit in Paris that ends Friday, June 23, was to set up concrete measures to help poor and developing countries better tackle issues like poverty and climate change. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly, File)
Climate activists Patience Nabukalu, of Uganda, left, and Mitzi Jonelle Tan, of the Philippines, participate in a demonstration ahead of the Global Climate Finance Summit, Wednesday, June 21, 2023 in Paris. The aim of a two-day climate and finance summit in Paris that ends Friday, June 23, was to set up concrete measures to help poor and developing countries better tackle issues like poverty and climate change. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)
CEO of the European Climate Foundation Laurence Tubiana, from left, climate activists Ineza Grace, of Rwanda, Vanessa Nakate, of Uganda, Helena Gualinga, of Ecuador, Mitzi Jonelle Tan, of the Philippines, and Greta Thunberg, of Sweden, attend a news conference in Paris, June 22, 2023. The aim of a two-day climate and finance summit in Paris that ends Friday, June 23, was to set up concrete measures to help poor and developing countries better tackle issues like poverty and climate change. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly, File)
- Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva speaks during the Power Our Planet concert on the sideline of the Climate Finance conference in Paris, June 22, 2023. The aim of a two-day climate and finance summit in Paris that ends Friday, June 23, was to set up concrete measures to help poor and developing countries better tackle issues like poverty and climate change. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly, File)
SAMUEL PETREQUIN and SYLVIE CORBET
Thu, June 22, 2023
PARIS (AP) — After all the talking, time for tangible solutions?
The aim of the two-day climate and finance summit ending Friday in Paris was to set up concrete measures to help poor and developing countries whose predicaments have been worsened by the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine better tackle poverty and climate change.
Even though the gathering of world and financial leaders has no mandate to make formal decisions, French President Emmanuel Macron has pledged to deliver a to-do list that should be accompanied by a progress-tracking tool.
“We have to come up with mobilizations, commitments, new instruments and very concrete solutions that will change life on the ground in countries facing these challenges,” Macron said.
U.S. climate envoy John Kerry was on the same wavelength, telling The Associated Press the conference would aim to “come out with some results that are specific to how you can mobilize finance” in a bid to reduce emissions faster.
Several activists and non-governmental organizations have urged the summit participants to ensure that rich countries commit to debt relief for poor nations, including the cancellation of loans. A debt suspension clause for countries hit by extreme climatic events was also discussed.
In addition, the idea of implementing a tax on the greenhouse gas emissions produced from international shipping has been gaining traction, with possible adoption at a July meeting of the International Maritime Organization. Some experts believe that a tax on shipping alone could raise $100 billion a year, and a strong declaration on this in Paris might provide Macron with a symbolic win, especially if it gets backing from the IMO next month.
To bring in more money, activists are pushing for a tax on the fossil fuel industry and another one on financial transactions — but those two proposals appear to have little support from wealthier nations.
Ineza Grace, a young climate activist from Rwanda, said a good outcome for the summit would be the emergence of a new vision in developed countries for what they need to do.
“To understand how they can replace the current financial structures that are reproducing the colonial structure,” she said.
Fellow activist Greta Thunberg, speaking alongside Grace on the sidelines of the meetings, agreed.
“The aspect of climate justice and equity has been more or less excluded from the global climate negotiations and the discourse,” Thunberg said.
The summit's first day included announcements of a pair of deals. French officials said debt-burdened Zambia reached a deal with several creditors including China to restructure $6.3 billion in loans. And Senegal reached a deal with the European Union and western allies to support its efforts to improve its access to energy and increase its share of renewable energy to 40% by 2030.
Many officials from poor and climate-vulnerable nations attended, with only two top leaders from the Group of Seven most developed countries — Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz — in the audience.
The U.S. was represented by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and climate envoy John Kerry. Other attendees included China’s Prime Minister Li Qiang, Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, World Bank head Ajay Banga and IMF President Kristalina Georgieva.
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Associated Press writer Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed. ___ Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Thu, June 22, 2023
PARIS (AP) — After all the talking, time for tangible solutions?
The aim of the two-day climate and finance summit ending Friday in Paris was to set up concrete measures to help poor and developing countries whose predicaments have been worsened by the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine better tackle poverty and climate change.
Even though the gathering of world and financial leaders has no mandate to make formal decisions, French President Emmanuel Macron has pledged to deliver a to-do list that should be accompanied by a progress-tracking tool.
“We have to come up with mobilizations, commitments, new instruments and very concrete solutions that will change life on the ground in countries facing these challenges,” Macron said.
U.S. climate envoy John Kerry was on the same wavelength, telling The Associated Press the conference would aim to “come out with some results that are specific to how you can mobilize finance” in a bid to reduce emissions faster.
Several activists and non-governmental organizations have urged the summit participants to ensure that rich countries commit to debt relief for poor nations, including the cancellation of loans. A debt suspension clause for countries hit by extreme climatic events was also discussed.
In addition, the idea of implementing a tax on the greenhouse gas emissions produced from international shipping has been gaining traction, with possible adoption at a July meeting of the International Maritime Organization. Some experts believe that a tax on shipping alone could raise $100 billion a year, and a strong declaration on this in Paris might provide Macron with a symbolic win, especially if it gets backing from the IMO next month.
To bring in more money, activists are pushing for a tax on the fossil fuel industry and another one on financial transactions — but those two proposals appear to have little support from wealthier nations.
Ineza Grace, a young climate activist from Rwanda, said a good outcome for the summit would be the emergence of a new vision in developed countries for what they need to do.
“To understand how they can replace the current financial structures that are reproducing the colonial structure,” she said.
Fellow activist Greta Thunberg, speaking alongside Grace on the sidelines of the meetings, agreed.
“The aspect of climate justice and equity has been more or less excluded from the global climate negotiations and the discourse,” Thunberg said.
The summit's first day included announcements of a pair of deals. French officials said debt-burdened Zambia reached a deal with several creditors including China to restructure $6.3 billion in loans. And Senegal reached a deal with the European Union and western allies to support its efforts to improve its access to energy and increase its share of renewable energy to 40% by 2030.
Many officials from poor and climate-vulnerable nations attended, with only two top leaders from the Group of Seven most developed countries — Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz — in the audience.
The U.S. was represented by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and climate envoy John Kerry. Other attendees included China’s Prime Minister Li Qiang, Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, World Bank head Ajay Banga and IMF President Kristalina Georgieva.
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Associated Press writer Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed. ___ Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Climate finance summit wraps up eyeing bigger progress
Kelly MACNAMARA
Thu, June 22, 2023
Debt in emerging and developing countries
A global summit seeking to overhaul the international financial system wraps up Friday after taking small steps towards easing the debt burden of developing nations weighed down by climate and economic crises.
While host country France pitched the conference as a consensus-building exercise, leaders are under pressure to produce clear outcomes from the two-day meeting as economies stagger under growing debt after successive crises in recent years.
The summit comes amid growing recognition of the scale of the financial challenges ahead, with warnings that the world's ability to curb global warming at tolerable levels is reliant on a massive increase in clean energy investment in developing countries.
With trust in short supply over broken climate financing promises from richer countries, developing nations are looking for tangible progress.
The V20 group of countries on the climate front lines -- which now includes 58 member nations -- has said restructuring the global financial system to align with climate targets must be completed by 2030.
"We come to Paris to identify the common humanity that we share and the absolute moral imperative to save our planet and to make it liveable," said Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, whose Caribbean island nation is threatened by rising sea levels and tropical storms.
She has become a powerful advocate for revamping the role of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in an era of climate crisis.
Barbados has put forward a detailed plan for how to fix the global financial system to help developing countries invest in clean energy and boost resilience to climate impacts.
One key announcement came from IMF director Kristalina Georgieva, who said a pledge to shift $100 billion of liquidity-boosting "special drawing rights" into a climate and poverty fund had been met.
World Bank president Ajay Banga said the lender would introduce a "pause" mechanism on debt repayments for countries hit by a crisis so they could "focus on what matters" and "stop worrying about the bill that is going to come".
Separately, Senegal was promised 2.5 billion euros ($2.7 billion) by a group of wealthy nations and multilateral development banks to help the west African country reduce its dependence on fossil fuels.
And Zambia, which defaulted on its debt after the Covid pandemic broke out, secured some financial relief as its main lender China and other creditors agreed to restructure $6.3 billion in loans.
On Twitter, Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema called it a "significant milestone in our journey towards economic recovery & growth".
- Turning 'billions to trillions' -
But much more is needed to help developing countries combat climate change.
Macron said he was hopeful that a pledge to deliver $100 billion a year in climate finance to poorer nations by 2020 would finally be fulfilled this year -- although actual confirmation the money has been delivered will take months if not years.
This week, the International Energy Agency said annual investment just for clean energy in these countries will need to jump to nearly $2 trillion within a decade.
This is crucial to keep alive the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to "well below" two degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times, and below 1.5C if possible.
Ideas for how to turn "billions to trillions" for these climate and development goals include using multilateral development banks to help unlock climate investments, as well as taxation on fossil fuel profits and financial transactions to raise climate funds.
France backs the idea of an international tax on carbon emissions from shipping, with hopes for a breakthrough at a meeting of the International Maritime Organization in July.
Countries also want disaster clauses added to new debt arrangements to allow a country to pause repayments for two years after an extreme weather event.
Kelly MACNAMARA
Thu, June 22, 2023
Debt in emerging and developing countries
A global summit seeking to overhaul the international financial system wraps up Friday after taking small steps towards easing the debt burden of developing nations weighed down by climate and economic crises.
While host country France pitched the conference as a consensus-building exercise, leaders are under pressure to produce clear outcomes from the two-day meeting as economies stagger under growing debt after successive crises in recent years.
The summit comes amid growing recognition of the scale of the financial challenges ahead, with warnings that the world's ability to curb global warming at tolerable levels is reliant on a massive increase in clean energy investment in developing countries.
With trust in short supply over broken climate financing promises from richer countries, developing nations are looking for tangible progress.
The V20 group of countries on the climate front lines -- which now includes 58 member nations -- has said restructuring the global financial system to align with climate targets must be completed by 2030.
"We come to Paris to identify the common humanity that we share and the absolute moral imperative to save our planet and to make it liveable," said Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, whose Caribbean island nation is threatened by rising sea levels and tropical storms.
She has become a powerful advocate for revamping the role of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in an era of climate crisis.
Barbados has put forward a detailed plan for how to fix the global financial system to help developing countries invest in clean energy and boost resilience to climate impacts.
One key announcement came from IMF director Kristalina Georgieva, who said a pledge to shift $100 billion of liquidity-boosting "special drawing rights" into a climate and poverty fund had been met.
World Bank president Ajay Banga said the lender would introduce a "pause" mechanism on debt repayments for countries hit by a crisis so they could "focus on what matters" and "stop worrying about the bill that is going to come".
Separately, Senegal was promised 2.5 billion euros ($2.7 billion) by a group of wealthy nations and multilateral development banks to help the west African country reduce its dependence on fossil fuels.
And Zambia, which defaulted on its debt after the Covid pandemic broke out, secured some financial relief as its main lender China and other creditors agreed to restructure $6.3 billion in loans.
On Twitter, Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema called it a "significant milestone in our journey towards economic recovery & growth".
- Turning 'billions to trillions' -
But much more is needed to help developing countries combat climate change.
Macron said he was hopeful that a pledge to deliver $100 billion a year in climate finance to poorer nations by 2020 would finally be fulfilled this year -- although actual confirmation the money has been delivered will take months if not years.
This week, the International Energy Agency said annual investment just for clean energy in these countries will need to jump to nearly $2 trillion within a decade.
This is crucial to keep alive the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to "well below" two degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times, and below 1.5C if possible.
Ideas for how to turn "billions to trillions" for these climate and development goals include using multilateral development banks to help unlock climate investments, as well as taxation on fossil fuel profits and financial transactions to raise climate funds.
France backs the idea of an international tax on carbon emissions from shipping, with hopes for a breakthrough at a meeting of the International Maritime Organization in July.
Countries also want disaster clauses added to new debt arrangements to allow a country to pause repayments for two years after an extreme weather event.
Climate activist Nakate urges rich countries to cancel debt, grant climate finance at Paris summit
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Mosimann performs during the Power Our Planet concert on the sideline of the Climate Finance conference in Paris, Thursday, June 22, 2023. World leaders, heads of international organisations and activists are gathering in Paris for a two-day summit aimed at seeking better responses to tackle poverty and climate change issues by reshaping the global financial system. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)
A climate activist holds a banner as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Melinda French Gates, Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, left, attend a session at the Global Climate Finance summit, Thursday, June 22, 2023 in Paris. World leaders, heads of international organizations and activists are gathering in Paris for a two-day summit aimed at seeking better responses to tackle poverty and climate change issues by reshaping the global financial system. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
The Paris summit comes in the wake of a plan championed by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley to ease access to financing for climate-vulnerable countries. Mottley and other proponents have argued that developing countries are forced to pay such high interest rates that they struggle to finance adaptation projects, like sea walls, or green energy initiatives, like large solar farms, or simply make payments on outstanding loans when climate-infused disasters strike.
“What is required of us now is absolute transformation — and not reform — of our institutions," Mottley said.
"I hope that we leave Paris therefore not only secure in our determination to protect the planet, to protect the biodiversity, to protect people, but to recognize that if we do not act today, at scale, with pace, we will not be able to get there in time to save more people,” Mottley said.
The Paris summit has no mandate to make formal decisions, French organizers stressed, but it aims to give a strong political impetus to key issues to be discussed in upcoming climate conferences and other international meetings.
Climate activists and developing nations also urged rich countries to deliver on their existing commitments.
Macron tweeted Thursday that experts said the pledge to provide poor nations with $100 billion in aid each year to tackle global change “is very likely to be met this year!” First made in 2009 and reaffirmed at the 2015 Paris climate summit, the promise has never been fulfilled.
Summit participants could back a tax on the greenhouse gas emissions produced from international shipping, with the aim to enable its adoption at a July meeting of the International Maritime Organization.
To bring more money in, activists are pushing for a tax on the fossil fuel industry and another one on financial transactions — two proposals that appear to have little support from wealthier nations.
Debt restructuring and cancellation are also to be debated, as a growing number of countries are struggling with unsustainable debt aggravated by climate change issues. Participants were to discuss a debt suspension clause for countries hit by extreme climatic events.
Many officials from poor and climate-vulnerable nations attended the summit, with only two members of the Group of Seven most developed countries — Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz — in the audience. The U.S. was represented by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and climate envoy John Kerry.
Attendees included China’s Prime Minister Li Qiang, Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, World Bank head Ajay Banga and IMF President Kristalina Georgieva.
___
Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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Vanessa Nakate asks for a minute of silence for people suffering all over the world at the New Global Financial summit in Paris Thursday, June 22, 2023. Facing an audience packed with world leaders and finance officials in suits, Vanessa Nakate silenced the room, then made everyone listen to some uncomfortable facts. World leaders, heads of international organizations and activists are gathering in Paris for a two-day summit aimed at seeking better responses to tackle poverty and climate change issues by reshaping the global financial system.
(Ludovic Marin, Pool via AP)
SAMUEL PETREQUIN and SYLVIE CORBET
Wed, June 22, 2023
PARIS (AP) — Facing an audience packed with world leaders and finance officials in suits, Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate silenced the room, then made everyone listen to some uncomfortable facts.
Speaking at a two-day summit aimed at seeking better responses to tackle poverty and climate change issues by reshaping the global financial system, the UNICEF ambassador and campaigner was in a somber mood and asked for a moment of silence.
Dressed in a black t-shirt with the slogan “Divest Now,” Nakate said the silence was for "people around the world who are already suffering, starving, being displaced, dropping out of school, being forced into child marriages, losing their cultures and history, those who are already helpless, hopeless and dying due to the devastating impact of the climate crisis.”
Speaking right after summit host French President Emmanuel Macron, Nakate then urged delegates to put people first instead of profits, to make polluters pay, to cancel debt and direct climate finance toward the most vulnerable countries that did not create the climate crisis, while making sure fossil fuels are not part of their development.
“You must be thinking in trillions, not billions,” she said, punctuating her speech with depressing statistics about pollution and the world's growing inequalities between the rich and the have nots.
The summit brings together more than 50 heads of state, world finance officials and activists. They will discuss ways of reforming the global financial system and address the debt, climate change, and poverty crises.
Macron called for massive investment for developing countries in his address, saying that no country should have to choose between “reducing poverty or protecting the planet.” He insisted on the need for more investment from both the public and private sectors, and the crucial role played by international institutions.
Among concrete steps taken Thursday, Senegal reached a deal with the European Union and western allies including France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Canada to support the country’s efforts to improve its access to energy and increase its share of renewable energy to 40% by 2030. The deal will mobilize 2.5 billion euros ($2.7 billion).
“Diversifying our energy sources and our supply chains will increase our resilience,” Senegal president Macky Sall said.
The Paris talks come as the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and a global debt crisis have led to a drop in life expectancy and an increase in poverty in most countries around the world, the United Nations Development Program reported.
Developing nations point to an outdated system where the United States, Europe, China and other big economies that have caused most climate damage are leaving the poorest countries to deal with the consequences.
Amid key topics to be discussed in Paris are changes needed in the way the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are lending and granting money to the most vulnerable countries. Both institutions have been criticized for not factoring climate change into lending decisions and being dominated by wealthy countries like the U.S.
Macron praised the International Monetary Fund’s initiative to allocate more funds to low-income countries through Special Drawing Rights, which are an IMF international reserve asset that can be exchanged for hard currency.
“The international financial system is in crisis,” said U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. He commended the Special Drawing Rights initiative, but criticized how funds were allocated, with the European Union receiving $160 billion to Africa's $34 billion.
"A European citizen received on average almost 13 times more than an African citizen. All this was done according to the rules. But let’s face it: these rules have become profoundly immoral,” he said.
SAMUEL PETREQUIN and SYLVIE CORBET
Wed, June 22, 2023
PARIS (AP) — Facing an audience packed with world leaders and finance officials in suits, Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate silenced the room, then made everyone listen to some uncomfortable facts.
Speaking at a two-day summit aimed at seeking better responses to tackle poverty and climate change issues by reshaping the global financial system, the UNICEF ambassador and campaigner was in a somber mood and asked for a moment of silence.
Dressed in a black t-shirt with the slogan “Divest Now,” Nakate said the silence was for "people around the world who are already suffering, starving, being displaced, dropping out of school, being forced into child marriages, losing their cultures and history, those who are already helpless, hopeless and dying due to the devastating impact of the climate crisis.”
Speaking right after summit host French President Emmanuel Macron, Nakate then urged delegates to put people first instead of profits, to make polluters pay, to cancel debt and direct climate finance toward the most vulnerable countries that did not create the climate crisis, while making sure fossil fuels are not part of their development.
“You must be thinking in trillions, not billions,” she said, punctuating her speech with depressing statistics about pollution and the world's growing inequalities between the rich and the have nots.
The summit brings together more than 50 heads of state, world finance officials and activists. They will discuss ways of reforming the global financial system and address the debt, climate change, and poverty crises.
Macron called for massive investment for developing countries in his address, saying that no country should have to choose between “reducing poverty or protecting the planet.” He insisted on the need for more investment from both the public and private sectors, and the crucial role played by international institutions.
Among concrete steps taken Thursday, Senegal reached a deal with the European Union and western allies including France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Canada to support the country’s efforts to improve its access to energy and increase its share of renewable energy to 40% by 2030. The deal will mobilize 2.5 billion euros ($2.7 billion).
“Diversifying our energy sources and our supply chains will increase our resilience,” Senegal president Macky Sall said.
The Paris talks come as the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and a global debt crisis have led to a drop in life expectancy and an increase in poverty in most countries around the world, the United Nations Development Program reported.
Developing nations point to an outdated system where the United States, Europe, China and other big economies that have caused most climate damage are leaving the poorest countries to deal with the consequences.
Amid key topics to be discussed in Paris are changes needed in the way the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are lending and granting money to the most vulnerable countries. Both institutions have been criticized for not factoring climate change into lending decisions and being dominated by wealthy countries like the U.S.
Macron praised the International Monetary Fund’s initiative to allocate more funds to low-income countries through Special Drawing Rights, which are an IMF international reserve asset that can be exchanged for hard currency.
“The international financial system is in crisis,” said U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. He commended the Special Drawing Rights initiative, but criticized how funds were allocated, with the European Union receiving $160 billion to Africa's $34 billion.
"A European citizen received on average almost 13 times more than an African citizen. All this was done according to the rules. But let’s face it: these rules have become profoundly immoral,” he said.
Mosimann performs during the Power Our Planet concert on the sideline of the Climate Finance conference in Paris, Thursday, June 22, 2023. World leaders, heads of international organisations and activists are gathering in Paris for a two-day summit aimed at seeking better responses to tackle poverty and climate change issues by reshaping the global financial system. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly)
A climate activist holds a banner as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Melinda French Gates, Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, left, attend a session at the Global Climate Finance summit, Thursday, June 22, 2023 in Paris. World leaders, heads of international organizations and activists are gathering in Paris for a two-day summit aimed at seeking better responses to tackle poverty and climate change issues by reshaping the global financial system. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
The Paris summit comes in the wake of a plan championed by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley to ease access to financing for climate-vulnerable countries. Mottley and other proponents have argued that developing countries are forced to pay such high interest rates that they struggle to finance adaptation projects, like sea walls, or green energy initiatives, like large solar farms, or simply make payments on outstanding loans when climate-infused disasters strike.
“What is required of us now is absolute transformation — and not reform — of our institutions," Mottley said.
"I hope that we leave Paris therefore not only secure in our determination to protect the planet, to protect the biodiversity, to protect people, but to recognize that if we do not act today, at scale, with pace, we will not be able to get there in time to save more people,” Mottley said.
The Paris summit has no mandate to make formal decisions, French organizers stressed, but it aims to give a strong political impetus to key issues to be discussed in upcoming climate conferences and other international meetings.
Climate activists and developing nations also urged rich countries to deliver on their existing commitments.
Macron tweeted Thursday that experts said the pledge to provide poor nations with $100 billion in aid each year to tackle global change “is very likely to be met this year!” First made in 2009 and reaffirmed at the 2015 Paris climate summit, the promise has never been fulfilled.
Summit participants could back a tax on the greenhouse gas emissions produced from international shipping, with the aim to enable its adoption at a July meeting of the International Maritime Organization.
To bring more money in, activists are pushing for a tax on the fossil fuel industry and another one on financial transactions — two proposals that appear to have little support from wealthier nations.
Debt restructuring and cancellation are also to be debated, as a growing number of countries are struggling with unsustainable debt aggravated by climate change issues. Participants were to discuss a debt suspension clause for countries hit by extreme climatic events.
Many officials from poor and climate-vulnerable nations attended the summit, with only two members of the Group of Seven most developed countries — Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz — in the audience. The U.S. was represented by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and climate envoy John Kerry.
Attendees included China’s Prime Minister Li Qiang, Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, World Bank head Ajay Banga and IMF President Kristalina Georgieva.
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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
'We only have this planet': Barbados PM urges unified climate finance response
Kelly MACNAMARA
Thu, June 22, 2023
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley called for 'absolute transformation' of global institutions like the World Bank (JOEL SAGET)
Between brainstorming ways to fix the global financial system and appearing onstage at a Paris pop concert, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley stopped to record a message about the storm looming near her Caribbean nation.
"This is our new reality in a climate crisis world," she told AFP in an interview in the snatched minutes between events linked to a summit hosted by France to rethink how the world funds international goals to end poverty and halt global warming.
News of the storm had made Mottley, who co-headlined the summit, agonise about whether to rush home, underscoring the challenges small island nations face.
In the end, she told fellow leaders at the opening of the meeting, she decided to stay to help push for action.
Mottley has played a key role in galvanising world leaders on reforms that had languished on the global to-do list for years, but she is keen underscore that this is an "inclusive process" involving a host of other countries, organisations and civil society.
"We only have this planet and unless you have a plan to live on Mars that I don't know about then we need to work together to make it better," she told AFP.
Mottley, who on Thursday called for "absolute transformation" of institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, sounded a note of caution about the level of political will.
"I think that there are problems in getting governments to overcome domestic politics and geopolitics," she said.
But on Thursday evening, ahead of her appearance onstage at Global Citizen's "Power Our Planet" concert featuring Billie Eilish, Mottley was celebrating a win.
"Today is a good day in that we have had almost everybody accept the validity of natural disaster clauses," she told AFP, referring to one of the key items in the Barbados proposal for retooling the financial system.
Earlier, World Bank president Ajay Banga said the lender would introduce a "pause" mechanism on debt repayments for countries hit by a crisis so they can "focus on what matters" and "stop worrying about the bill that is going come".
That is important for countries facing increasingly ferocious storms, floods and droughts that can wipe out chunks of an economy virtually overnight.
Speaking onstage with Banga, Mottley said Barbados had campaigned for years on this issue and praised him for agreeing to it just days into his new role.
"Your shoulders have to be broad for this moment," she told him, after commending Emmanuel Macron's climate leadership in the face of chants from the mainly young crowd against the French leader.
- Storms brewing -
The Paris summit comes amid growing recognition that curbing global warming at tolerable levels will require a massive increase in spending by poor and emerging economies on climate resilience and clean energy investment.
Other proposals from developing countries include how to turn "billions to trillions" for climate and development goals using multilateral development banks to help unlock private sector investments, as well as taxation on fossil fuel profits and financial transactions.
For many nations participating in the Paris talks, particularly those in the V20 group of more than 50 climate vulnerable countries, those ideas are based on painful experience.
Countries are being lashed by ever more expensive impacts, on top of a range of other challenges -- from inflation to collapsing ecosystems.
Mottley said the storm threatening Barbados is likely to brush north of the country.
"But we still have to be careful," she said, adding that storms used to hit from June to October or November, but now they can batter the country from May to December.
And she said "immediately after this one, there's another one coming".
Barbados PM fights for shake-up of global climate finance
Justin Rowlatt - Climate editor in Paris
Wed, June 21, 2023
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley says rich nations must help developing countries pay for impacts of climate change
World leaders meeting in Paris on Thursday could give poorer countries access to hundreds of billions of dollars to tackle climate change.
Mia Mottley, Barbados' first female PM, is leading the global fight for this money and tells BBC News that her tiny country urgently needs help.
Poorer nations want more money because they did little to cause climate change but face its worst effects.
They also struggle to afford expensive projects like renewable energy.
Climate finance, including funding for flood defences or solar plants, has long been one of the biggest sticking points in climate negotiations.
But Ms Mottley has built a global coalition to support her demand that the international financial system be fundamentally reformed.
"We are all in this together", Ms Mottley told BBC News in Paris. "If we don't realise that, we will not act with the urgency that's necessary to save the planet and save lives."
The Barbadian prime minister is joint host of the Paris conference with President Emmanuel Macron of France.
Island nations like the Maldives want help to build defences against flooding linked to climate change
Dozens of world leaders are attending the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact, including the German Chancellor, the president of Brazil and the new president of the World Bank as well as the prime minister of China and the US Treasury Secretary.
The UK is sending its minister for development, Andrew Mitchell.
Ms Mottley is determined the meeting deliver results.
She describes the threat of climate change as "a death sentence" on the world. "If it is a death sentence, then we need to move with urgency," she explains.
Insiders at the summit are expecting an announcement that a target for $100bn worth of a kind of international currency called Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) has been met.
These assets will be transferred to low-income countries to be used for climate programmes.
But Ms Mottley has an even bigger prize in her sights, a plan dubbed the "Bridgetown Agenda" after the Barbadian capital.
It wants to generate more finance for the countries that need it most through a wholesale modernisation of the international monetary system.
The current institutions - including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) - were set up by the victorious nations towards the end of the Second World War at a conference in a ski resort called Bretton Woods in New Hampshire, US
The so-called "Bretton Woods system" will celebrate its 80th anniversary next year.
Ms Mottley says she wants to make it fit for the challenges of the modern world by moving the focus away from richer nations and towards delivering outcomes that benefit the entire world, like helping developing countries tackle climate change.
Many countries are facing extreme drought as global temperature rises
"The reason why these institutions exist is that they were created to help the world in the reconstruction effort after World War Two. We are in a moment that is equal to World War Two with respect to climate," she said.
This week the International Energy Agency warned annual investments in clean energy in developing nations will need to triple from $770bn in 2022 to as much as $2.8tn by the early 2030s if the world is to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
One proposal is that institutions like the World Bank offer cheaper loans for climate action projects.
It is much more expensive to build flood defences in Barbados or Angola than it is in the Netherlands or the UK, Ms Mottley points out.
The same goes for erecting wind turbines or installing solar farms.
That is because low-income countries are charged high interest rates - often two or even three times the rates developed nations face.
Yet the risks of individual projects don't vary anywhere near as much as that.
Another suggestion is that institutions like the World Bank should agree to guarantee loans for climate action in developing nations. That would encourage the private sector to lend at lower interest rates.
Experts say these initiatives could generate hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of loans for climate projects in low-income countries.
Another proposal involves the creation of an auction in which developing nations would bid for cheap finance for climate projects.
This "Climate Mitigation Trust Fund" would be funded by tens of billions of dollars' worth of SDRs and overseen by the IMF and the UN.
The winners would be the projects that reduce global warming fastest.
It is not expected that a final decision will be made on these proposals, but Ms Mottley is confident that progress will be made.
We tell our children we shouldn't put off to tomorrow what we need to do today, Ms Mottley says.
"I find myself actually repeating a lot of things that we would say to children, in order to inform global behaviour today," she continues. "That tells us a lot."
Kelly MACNAMARA
Thu, June 22, 2023
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley called for 'absolute transformation' of global institutions like the World Bank (JOEL SAGET)
Between brainstorming ways to fix the global financial system and appearing onstage at a Paris pop concert, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley stopped to record a message about the storm looming near her Caribbean nation.
"This is our new reality in a climate crisis world," she told AFP in an interview in the snatched minutes between events linked to a summit hosted by France to rethink how the world funds international goals to end poverty and halt global warming.
News of the storm had made Mottley, who co-headlined the summit, agonise about whether to rush home, underscoring the challenges small island nations face.
In the end, she told fellow leaders at the opening of the meeting, she decided to stay to help push for action.
Mottley has played a key role in galvanising world leaders on reforms that had languished on the global to-do list for years, but she is keen underscore that this is an "inclusive process" involving a host of other countries, organisations and civil society.
"We only have this planet and unless you have a plan to live on Mars that I don't know about then we need to work together to make it better," she told AFP.
Mottley, who on Thursday called for "absolute transformation" of institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, sounded a note of caution about the level of political will.
"I think that there are problems in getting governments to overcome domestic politics and geopolitics," she said.
But on Thursday evening, ahead of her appearance onstage at Global Citizen's "Power Our Planet" concert featuring Billie Eilish, Mottley was celebrating a win.
"Today is a good day in that we have had almost everybody accept the validity of natural disaster clauses," she told AFP, referring to one of the key items in the Barbados proposal for retooling the financial system.
Earlier, World Bank president Ajay Banga said the lender would introduce a "pause" mechanism on debt repayments for countries hit by a crisis so they can "focus on what matters" and "stop worrying about the bill that is going come".
That is important for countries facing increasingly ferocious storms, floods and droughts that can wipe out chunks of an economy virtually overnight.
Speaking onstage with Banga, Mottley said Barbados had campaigned for years on this issue and praised him for agreeing to it just days into his new role.
"Your shoulders have to be broad for this moment," she told him, after commending Emmanuel Macron's climate leadership in the face of chants from the mainly young crowd against the French leader.
- Storms brewing -
The Paris summit comes amid growing recognition that curbing global warming at tolerable levels will require a massive increase in spending by poor and emerging economies on climate resilience and clean energy investment.
Other proposals from developing countries include how to turn "billions to trillions" for climate and development goals using multilateral development banks to help unlock private sector investments, as well as taxation on fossil fuel profits and financial transactions.
For many nations participating in the Paris talks, particularly those in the V20 group of more than 50 climate vulnerable countries, those ideas are based on painful experience.
Countries are being lashed by ever more expensive impacts, on top of a range of other challenges -- from inflation to collapsing ecosystems.
Mottley said the storm threatening Barbados is likely to brush north of the country.
"But we still have to be careful," she said, adding that storms used to hit from June to October or November, but now they can batter the country from May to December.
And she said "immediately after this one, there's another one coming".
Barbados PM fights for shake-up of global climate finance
Justin Rowlatt - Climate editor in Paris
Wed, June 21, 2023
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley says rich nations must help developing countries pay for impacts of climate change
World leaders meeting in Paris on Thursday could give poorer countries access to hundreds of billions of dollars to tackle climate change.
Mia Mottley, Barbados' first female PM, is leading the global fight for this money and tells BBC News that her tiny country urgently needs help.
Poorer nations want more money because they did little to cause climate change but face its worst effects.
They also struggle to afford expensive projects like renewable energy.
Climate finance, including funding for flood defences or solar plants, has long been one of the biggest sticking points in climate negotiations.
But Ms Mottley has built a global coalition to support her demand that the international financial system be fundamentally reformed.
"We are all in this together", Ms Mottley told BBC News in Paris. "If we don't realise that, we will not act with the urgency that's necessary to save the planet and save lives."
The Barbadian prime minister is joint host of the Paris conference with President Emmanuel Macron of France.
Island nations like the Maldives want help to build defences against flooding linked to climate change
Dozens of world leaders are attending the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact, including the German Chancellor, the president of Brazil and the new president of the World Bank as well as the prime minister of China and the US Treasury Secretary.
The UK is sending its minister for development, Andrew Mitchell.
Ms Mottley is determined the meeting deliver results.
She describes the threat of climate change as "a death sentence" on the world. "If it is a death sentence, then we need to move with urgency," she explains.
Insiders at the summit are expecting an announcement that a target for $100bn worth of a kind of international currency called Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) has been met.
These assets will be transferred to low-income countries to be used for climate programmes.
But Ms Mottley has an even bigger prize in her sights, a plan dubbed the "Bridgetown Agenda" after the Barbadian capital.
It wants to generate more finance for the countries that need it most through a wholesale modernisation of the international monetary system.
The current institutions - including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) - were set up by the victorious nations towards the end of the Second World War at a conference in a ski resort called Bretton Woods in New Hampshire, US
The so-called "Bretton Woods system" will celebrate its 80th anniversary next year.
Ms Mottley says she wants to make it fit for the challenges of the modern world by moving the focus away from richer nations and towards delivering outcomes that benefit the entire world, like helping developing countries tackle climate change.
Many countries are facing extreme drought as global temperature rises
"The reason why these institutions exist is that they were created to help the world in the reconstruction effort after World War Two. We are in a moment that is equal to World War Two with respect to climate," she said.
This week the International Energy Agency warned annual investments in clean energy in developing nations will need to triple from $770bn in 2022 to as much as $2.8tn by the early 2030s if the world is to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
One proposal is that institutions like the World Bank offer cheaper loans for climate action projects.
It is much more expensive to build flood defences in Barbados or Angola than it is in the Netherlands or the UK, Ms Mottley points out.
The same goes for erecting wind turbines or installing solar farms.
That is because low-income countries are charged high interest rates - often two or even three times the rates developed nations face.
Yet the risks of individual projects don't vary anywhere near as much as that.
Another suggestion is that institutions like the World Bank should agree to guarantee loans for climate action in developing nations. That would encourage the private sector to lend at lower interest rates.
Experts say these initiatives could generate hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of loans for climate projects in low-income countries.
Another proposal involves the creation of an auction in which developing nations would bid for cheap finance for climate projects.
This "Climate Mitigation Trust Fund" would be funded by tens of billions of dollars' worth of SDRs and overseen by the IMF and the UN.
The winners would be the projects that reduce global warming fastest.
It is not expected that a final decision will be made on these proposals, but Ms Mottley is confident that progress will be made.
We tell our children we shouldn't put off to tomorrow what we need to do today, Ms Mottley says.
"I find myself actually repeating a lot of things that we would say to children, in order to inform global behaviour today," she continues. "That tells us a lot."
SEE
Countdown to Paris: Will leaders rise to the urgent climate challenge?
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