PARIS OLYMPIC GAMES
As the Paris summit on finance and climate change comes to an end, wealthy nations have pledged $100 billion to developing countries to tackle climate change.
Speaking at the final panel of the summit in Paris on Friday, the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, said wealthy nations have finalised an overdue $100 billion climate finance pledge to developing countries and to create a fund for biodiversity and the protection of forests.
Persecondnews reports that the two-day event, ‘‘Summit for a New Global Financial Pact’’ in Paris, which started on June 22, 2023, and spearheaded by President Macron, hosted over 40 world leaders, including Nigeria’s President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The summit’s objective is to boost crisis financing for low-income countries and ease their debt burdens, reform post-war financial systems and free up funds to tackle climate change by getting top-level consensus on how to promote a number of initiatives struggling in bodies like the G20, COP, IMF-World Bank and United Nations.
Most of the topics discussed at the summit leverage suggestions from a group of developing countries, led by Barbados Prime Minister, Mia Mottley.
Speaking at the summit’s closing panel on Friday, Mottley said: “We leave Paris not with speeches simply, but a commitment to get down into the granular details to make sure that what we agree here can be executed.
“The $100 billion pledge falls far short of poor nations’ actual needs, but has become symbolic of wealthy countries’ failure to deliver promised climate funds. This has fuelled mistrust in wider climate negotiations between countries attempting to boost CO2-cutting measures.
“If we can’t shape the rules in this time like others before, then we will be accountable for what potentially can be the worst reality of mankind.”
Persecondnews recalls that Civil society Organisations (CSOs) from across Africa had earlier called on President Macron to champion a transformative, climate-friendly policy agenda for people and the planet during the summit in Paris.
In a letter signed by 63 organisations, the CSOs underscored the urgency for comprehensive and robust commitments by world leaders, to boost climate finance and resilience in Africa.
They also called for ‘‘rapid and significant scaling up of debt-free, grant-based finance for African institutions, including the African Adaptation Initiative and community-led efforts to effectively respond to the rising impacts of climate change.’’
The experts said stronger commitments to climate financing is the surest way to create a more resilient and sustainable future for Africa’s vulnerable populations.
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