Businesses in the private sector must stump up cash for the developing world to invest in a low-carbon economy or face the consequences of climate breakdown, the president of the UN climate summit has said., the host of this year’s climate conference, wrote in Monday’s Guardian: “The onus cannot fall entirely on government purses. Unleashing private finance for developing countries’ transition has long been an ambition of climate talks.
Without the US, developed countries are likely to find targets on climate finance harder to meet. They may seek to reduce the component of publicly sourced money – from overseas aid budgets, and through institutions such as the World Bank – making up the climate finance goal. In a statement that some parties will find controversial, Babayev wrote: “With competing priorities, there simply isn’t enough money in the world to fund developing countries’ transition to clean energy solely through grants or concessional financing – let alone cover adaptation and loss and damage.”
However, many developing countries accept that private finance must play a role. A spokesperson for the Alliance of Small Island States said: “At the core of the NCQG is developed countries fulfilling their commitments under the Paris agreement. A key focus is the provision of public finance from developed to developing countries. An additional pillar is the mobilisation of substantive private financing, by specific public interventions of developed countries.