As much as $650 billion is being spent globally to aid countries in adjusting to climate change, according to a new United Nations report.
The report, released Wednesday at a climate change conference in Lima, Peru, said the low end of the amount being spent was $350 billion. The report covered aid during 2011 and 2012 and noted that, due to the complexity of determining where climate funding comes from, the actual amount spent could be higher.
Climate finance is one of the major components of a deal nations hope to strike next year in Paris that would govern emissions beyond 2020. The Lima conference is meant to set up those negotiations a year from now.
“Understanding how much is flowing from public and private sources, how much is leveraging further investments and how much is getting to vulnerable countries and communities, including for adaptation, is not easy — but vital for ensuring we are adequately financing a global transformation,” UN climate chief Christiana Figueres said.
At issue is a divide between developing and developed countries.
Developed countries spent 80 percent of the money raised to deal with climate issues domestically. While developing countries spent 71 percent, officials from those countries and international aid groups say richer nations should be doing more to help poorer countries.
Developing countries have pressed industrialized nations to pony up because they say the latter are responsible for historical emissions of greenhouse gases that are blamed for putting the climate on its current path. But developing nations are expected to drive emissions growth for the next several decades.
The study showed developing countries received between $40 billion and $175 billion of global climate funding. Some international development groups said that wasn’t enough.
“The [U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change] report on climate finance makes one thing abundantly clear,” said Jan Kowalzig, policy adviser for Oxfam. “Only a small proportion of climate finance is flowing from developed countries to developing countries.”
But wealthier nations might have a tough time coming up with the funding due to domestic politics.
In the United States, for example, the Obama administration will have to wrestle with a Republican Congress to secure new spending to honor a $3 billion commitment it made to the Green Climate Fund, which assists developing nations. If the White House can’t convince GOP lawmakers to do so, as is expected, the Obama administration may have to shift funding from other efforts.
