Rich countries are cutting aid to confront climate shocks, even as the risks grow

Washington – The United Nations said in a report that rich countries have reduced the amount of money they commit to helping developing countries adapt to the effects of climate change, even as the need for this spending increases. The report was released on Thursday.

Aid for climate adaptation fell to $21 billion in 2021, the most recent year for which comprehensive data are available, a 15 percent decline from 2020, likely as a result of increased financial pressures on rich countries resulting from COVID-19 and other challenges, according to the authors. .

The researchers found that the United States recorded one of the largest reductions in climate adaptation aid of any country between 2020 and 2021. In 2021, the United States allocated $129 million in climate adaptation aid, compared to $245 million in 2020, a decrease of 47 percent.

White House spokesman Angelo Fernandez Hernandez said the report “does not represent the full picture of what the United States is doing regarding climate adaptation.” The Biden administration has secured about $2 billion in climate adaptation funding for fiscal year 2022, he said.

The report found that developing countries will need between $215 billion and $387 billion annually this decade to protect against climate shocks, such as worsening storms, crop failure, and lack of access to water. This is 18 times more than the total amount rich countries have pledged for climate adaptation in 2021.

The new data comes weeks before the start of the major UN climate summit in Dubai, where aid to developing countries will be at the top of the agenda. At a similar summit two years ago in Glasgow, countries agreed to double funding for climate adaptation by 2025, compared to 2019 levels. The report said that even if countries fulfilled this pledge, they would provide only a small share of the additional funds needed.

“Ambition really needs to be increased,” said Georgia Savido, a research associate at the Stockholm Environment Institute and one of the report’s authors.

The demand for adaptation assistance has increased. The report notes that under current climate policies around the world, average global temperatures will rise by at least 2.4 degrees Celsius, or 4.3 degrees Fahrenheit, compared to pre-industrial levels by the end of this century. This is far more than the 1.5°C target set by scientists, above which the effects of warming threaten to become catastrophic.

“Current climate action is woefully inadequate,” the report said.

Since 2016, the last time the United Nations prepared a detailed analysis, the amount of money developing countries need to adapt to climate change has increased by more than 25 percent, according to Paul Watkiss, another author of the report. This increasing cost reflects increasing global warming and a better understanding of the impacts of this global warming and the steps countries need to take to address these impacts.

The report said that the issue of climate adaptation aid depends on several basic principles. First, developing countries bear a small share of the greenhouse gas emissions that cause sea level rise, worsening storms, droughts, and other climate shocks. Wealthy countries such as the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom have contributed a disproportionate share of those emissions, which many see as creating an obligation to help deal with their consequences.

Second, poor countries are often more vulnerable to these shocks than their richer counterparts. Their infrastructure is often less modern or well-maintained, and they may have less access to early warning systems to prepare for disasters, or insurance to rebuild afterwards.

Finally, money spent on climate adaptation could significantly reduce the cost of future damage, an argument the Biden administration has used to justify. Increase spending on adaptation Within the United States. The infrastructure bill signed by President Biden in 2021 represents the largest single investment in climate resilience and adaptation in American history.

These returns can be greater in developing countries. According to the report, spending $1 billion on coastal flood protection reduces damage by $14 billion. Investing $16 billion in agriculture annually would save about 78 million people from chronic hunger or famine.

If developing countries are unable to deal with the effects of climate change, the consequences could also have huge implications for rich countries. Climate-related shocks, such as crop failures, hurricanes and other disasters, can spur migration, even if the United States and other countries try to prevent it.

“You cannot have an immune Europe,” Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, said in an interview last year. “You can’t have Fortress America. It’s not working.”

Climate shocks can also contribute to instability and conflict. Erin Sikorsky, director of the Center for Climate and Security, a research organization in Washington, pointed to Pakistan, a nuclear-armed country that is still reeling from severe flooding last year. She added that the country has witnessed increasing protests over food and energy prices since those floods.

“Climate-induced instability in countries like Pakistan threatens U.S. security, whether by escalating conflict that requires the deployment of U.S. forces, or giving extremists a foothold to exploit popular unrest and expand their power,” Ms. Sikorski said.

The report points to another way in which aid from rich countries is falling short: two-thirds of the $21 billion promised by rich countries in 2021 has already been disbursed.

“We cannot have an impact on the ground unless the funding actually reaches the ground,” Ms. Savido said.