Environmentalists unimpressed by German climate summit's £7.6bn pledge for developing world


Sultan Al Jaber, COP28 President-Designate and UAE's Special Envoy for Climate Change, talks during the Climate Future Week at Museum of the Future in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023.

ENVIRONMENTALISTS have expressed disappointment at a German climate summit that pledged $9.3 billion (£7.6bn) to help developing countries tackle climate change on Thursday.

The pledges will help replenish the South Korea-based Green Climate Fund, established in 2010 as a financing vehicle for developing countries. It’s the largest such fund aimed at providing money to help poorer nations in reducing their emissions, coping with impacts of climate change and boosting their transitions to clean energy.

But forthcoming Cop28 climate summit president Sultan al-Jaber of the United Arab Emirates said “the current level of replenishment is neither ambitious nor adequate to meet the challenge the world faces.”

Climate Action Network International head of global political strategy Harjeet Singh said the “Green Climate Fund, envisioned as the lifeline for climate action in developing nations, is held back by the indifference of wealthy countries.”

The Cop15 summit back in 2009 pledged wealthy countries to provide $100bn a year to assist developing countries tackle climate change by 2020, a sum which has never been reached.