Home » Posts tagged 'climate finance'
Tag Archives: climate finance
Peace and Security at COP29
By Noah Fritzhand and Anna Spear
Introduction
In November, Azerbaijan hosted the 29th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29). The event’s start was marked by sharp divisions, including disputes over the agenda, temporary breakdowns in negotiations, a boycott by Papua New Guinea, and criticism of Baku’s conference leadership. Key agenda items included increasing climate finance for poor countries, advancing COP28’s pledge to transition away from fossil fuels, and building resilient food systems, all of which featured important security and geopolitical dynamics. In the end, the agreed upon finance goal fell short of what many developing countries called for, decisions on next steps toward a fossil fuel phaseout were punted to COP30, and any progress was largely overshadowed by concerns about Azerbaijan’s COP Presidency.
(more…)
Geopolitics and the COP
By Scott Moore
Fighting climate change is supposed to be about cooperation for the common good. Or at least that has been the main message of every United Nations climate conference for the past two decades, the latest iteration of which just wrapped up. But high-minded calls to cooperate for the sake of the climate are increasingly running headlong into a hard-nosed reality: growing geopolitical competition between great powers. Unfortunately, geopolitics can make it harder for countries to work together to solve the climate crisis. But if you look carefully, they can also create opportunities to advance climate action.
(more…)
The Elephant in the Climate Room: Financing Sustainable Security and Supporting Future-Fit Systems
By Siena Cicarelli, Erin Sikorsky and Michael Werz
Every year, leaders of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank – as well as key stakeholders from civil society, the private sector and regional financial bodies – gather to assess the landscape of international development finance. This year, they will do so against the backdrop of a complex geopolitical landscape, where one of the most consequential election years in human history, continued conflict in Ukraine and Gaza, and increasingly frequent extreme weather events have divided multilateral bodies and strained the funding landscape.
While this year’s agenda will cover everything from water security to streamlining taxation, one key challenge will dominate discussions: the staggering costs of the green transition and how these relatively inflexible financial institutions can evolve to support global climate adaptation, mitigation and resilience building – particularly in fragile, conflict-affected and violent situations (FCV). As seen at 28th UN climate conference (COP28) and the 2024 World Bank Fragility Forum, most stakeholders recognize that existing efforts are falling short and are eager to move from admiring the problem to identifying tangible steps and best practices needed to address this challenge.
(more…)
Climate Finance, Food Security, and Cracks in the Transatlantic Alliance at COP28: Recommendations for the Global Stocktake
This blog post is part of the Nexus25 project, a joint initiative of the Istituto Affari Internazionali and the Center for Climate and Security, focused on sustainable multilateralism, and supported by Stiftung Mercator.
In the runup to the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), climate change’s role in complex security and humanitarian crises is continuing to challenge the capacity and ambition of the international community. As perhaps the most contentious issue in global climate action, climate finance is rightly a top priority for advocates and world leaders in Dubai.
While most member states recognize that climate change is driving, and will continue to drive, migration and food insecurity, and is disproportionately impacting marginalized populations, climate finance is a glaring gap in their policies and plans to respond to the resulting threats. The massive injection of funding required and the domestic politics that continue to stymie investment from world leaders is a critical barrier to meeting countries’ emissions and resilience goals, or Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). In this context, we recommend three key priorities in the leadup to COP28: finding new approaches to climate finance; improving messaging on the urgency of the climate threat; and repairing transatlantic relations to show leadership.
(more…)