Most recent 40 articles: Climate Change News - Finance
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UN climate chief calls for “exponential changes” to boost investment in Africa - Climate Change News - Finance (Sep 5) |
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Sep 5 · Action on clean energy and adaptation can be the single greatest opportunity to lift up African people and economies, Simon Stiell says
UNFCCC Executive Secretary Simon Stiell speaking at climate talks in Bonn, Germany, in June 2024. Photo: UNFCCC/Lucia Vasquez
UN climate chief Simon Stiell has urged world leaders “to flip the script” on climate action in Africa and move from “an epidemic of under-investment” to a “goldmine of human and economic benefits”.
Speaking at a conference of African environment ministers on Thursday in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, Stiell said investments in renewable energy and climate resilience ... | By Matteo Civillini Read more ...
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Verra axing of Shell’s rice-farming carbon credits in China fuels integrity fears - Climate Change News - Finance (Aug 30) |
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Aug 30 · The carbon market standard found “serious” quality issues with the projects, prompting questions about their initial approval
An oil-stained Shell logo is seen during the demonstration outside the Science Museum. (Photo by Vuk Valcic / SOPA Images/Sipa USA)
The axing of Shell’s carbon offsetting schemes linked to Chinese rice farming, announced by leading carbon credit standard Verra this week, has raised questions about the process used to verify the emissions reductions from such projects.
The activities were meant to slash climate-heating emissions of methane – a potent greenhouse gas – caused by the decomposition of plants in rice fields ... | By Matteo Civillini Read more ...
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Leaders are cutting fossil fuel finance – next comes unlocking clean energy for all - Climate Change News - Finance (Aug 29) |
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Aug 29 · Comment: While international public finance for coal, oil and gas has fallen by two-thirds, little of that money has gone to boost green energy in poorer countries
A woman looks at a solar panel, at a factory called Ener-G-Africa, where high-quality solar panels made by an all-women team are produced, in Cape Town, South Africa, February 9, 2023. (Photo: REUTERS/Esa Alexander)
Natalie Jones is a policy advisor on the energy programme at the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). She holds a PhD in international law from the University of Cambridge.
It’s a quiet climate success story: over 40 countries and public finance institutions have cut ... | By Natalie Jones Read more ...
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EU hit with lawsuit over green labelling of aviation and shipping investments - Climate Change News - Finance (Aug 28) |
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Aug 28 · Environmental campaigners take the EU to court over the inclusion of fossil fuel-powered planes and ships in green taxonomy
The LNG-powered MSC World Europa meets the EU green investment criteria, according to NGOs (Photo by Gerard Bottino / SOPA Images/Sipa USA)
Environmental campaigners have filed a lawsuit against the European Union over its inclusion of polluting planes and ships powered by fossil fuels in the bloc’s green investment rulebook.
The European Commission should review “flawed” sustainable finance criteria for the aviation and shipping sectors in the EU Taxonomy, a guide designed to funnel private investment towards net zero-aligned ... | By Matteo Civillini Read more ...
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How can governments tackle loss and damage at the national level? - Climate Change News - Finance (Aug 27) |
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Aug 27 · Comment: As host of the board of the new UN L&D fund, the Philippines can set an example with its pioneering climate accountability bill
An aerial view of a coastal town devastated by super Typhoon Haiyan in Samar province, Philippines, November 11, 2013. (Photo: REUTERS/Erik De Castro/File)
John Leo Algo is the national coordinator of Aksyon Klima Pilipinas and the deputy executive director for programs and campaigns of Living Laudato Si’ Philippines. He has represented Philippine civil society at UN climate and environmental conferences since 2016 and also works as a climate and environment journalist.
The Philippines now finds itself in a position to once ... | By John Leo Algo Read more ...
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In a world first, Grenada activates debt pause after Hurricane Beryl destruction - Climate Change News - Finance (Aug 21) |
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Aug 21 · More creditors are agreeing to suspend debt payments in the wake of weather disasters, but experts say greater financial relief will be needed
A man digs out a stranded boat after Hurricane Beryl passed the island of Petite Martinique, Grenada. REUTERS/Arthur Daniel
As Hurricane Beryl swept through the Caribbean in early July, its deadly passage left a trail of destruction across the island nation of Grenada.
Winds of up to 240 kilometres per hour flattened entire neighbourhoods and toppled power and communication lines, causing damage equivalent to a third of the country’s annual economic output, according to early government estimates.
Many Grenadians ... | By Matteo Civillini Read more ...
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Renewable-energy carbon credits rejected by high-integrity scheme - Climate Change News - Finance (Aug 7) |
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Aug 7 · The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market decided existing renewables methodologies don’t do enough to prove their emissions reductions are additional
Wind turbines spin at the partially carbon offset financed Guazhou Beidaqiao Wind Farm on August 30, 2023. (Photo by Mao Jianjun/China News Service/VCG )
Carbon credits generated from renewable energy projects have failed to obtain a new quality label from a key oversight body, casting fresh doubt on popular emissions offsets favoured by multinational companies like Audi, Shell and Total.
The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) announced on Tuesday that eight renewable energy ... | By Matteo Civillini and Joe Lo Read more ...
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The Loss and Damage Fund must not leave fragile states behind - Climate Change News - Finance (Jul 10) |
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Jul 10 · Comment: Unless the unique needs of conflict zones are prioritized, climate-vulnerable communities risk losing out on finance again
Afghan farmer Ghulam Hussain sits on a fallen tree after his agricultural land was destroyed by a flash flood, in Burka District, Baghlan, Afghanistan, May 12, 2024. (Photo: REUTERS/Sayed Hassib)
Adrianna Hardaway is senior policy advisor for climate with humanitarian aid agency Mercy Corps.
As the Loss and Damage Fund’s board meets this week, it is addressing key issues such as selecting a host country, how to disburse its financial resources, and lobbying for more funding from donors. However, the agenda currently doesn’t ... | By Adrianna Hardaway Read more ...
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G7 coal charade: Funding the fire they claim to fight - Climate Change News - Finance (Jun 12) |
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Jun 12 · Comment: Rich countries should take concrete steps to stem the global flow of funds from their commercial banks which are fuelling expansion of the coal industry
Danielle Koh is a policy analyst with Reclaim Finance and Daniela Finamore is a finance and climate campaigner at ReCommon.
The G7’s top leaders convene in Italy this week as the world swelters through its 12th hottest month on record. One key issue that needs to be addressed is G7 members’ continued bankrolling of coal, from fossil fuel subsidies to public financing and private investments.
The latest evidence shows that the world’s largest banks – the majority of which are headquartered in G7 ... | By Danielle Koh and Daniela Finamore Read more ...
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Rich nations meet $100bn climate finance goal – two years late - Climate Change News - Finance (May 29) |
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May 29 · Developed countries gave nearly $116 billion in climate finance in 2022, but experts and campaigners questioned how the target was met
Young activist call for the provision of climate finance during a demonstration at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai. Photo by Dominika Zarzycka/NurPhoto
For the first time, rich nations in 2022 delivered on a longstanding pledge to channel $100 billion a year in climate finance to developing nations – two years later than originally promised, official figures showed on Wednesday.
Their failure to meet the goal on time has been a sore point in the UN climate talks, fuelling distrust between wealthy governments and poorer ... | By Megan Rowling and Matteo Civillini Read more ...
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US government backs the carbon credit industry’s push to fix itself - Climate Change News - Finance (May 29) |
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May 29 · The Biden administration throws its weight behind the industry’s attempts to boost integrity in the beleaguered market
President Joe Biden speaks at an Earth Day event on April 22, 2024 in Triangle, VA. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Sipa USA)
The US government is seeking to bolster support for carbon offsets by putting its weight behind industry-led efforts to reform a market that has faced growing criticism.
The Biden administration has laid out for the first time a set of principles that attempt to define how “high-integrity” carbon credits can play “a meaningful role” in helping cut greenhouse gas emissions and channelling “a significant amount of private ... | By Matteo Civillini and Joe Lo Read more ...
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Loss and damage board speeds up work to allow countries direct access to funds - Climate Change News - Finance (May 3) |
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May 3 · At its first meeting, the fund’s board decided to fast-track the selection of its host country so money can be disbursed as fast as possible to disaster-hit people
The first board meeting was held in the UAE, where extreme rainfall caused widespread flooding last month. REUTERS/Amr Alfiky
The board of the loss and damage fund is set to pick its host nation in July as it speeds up the process to ensure hard-hit countries can directly access money to help them recover from the unavoidable effects of climate change.
As the 26-member board held its first three-day meeting in Abu Dhabi this week, discussions centered on the administrative steps needed to get the ... | By Matteo Civillini Read more ...
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Seismic shifts are underway to find finance for loss and damage - Climate Change News - Finance (May 3) |
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May 3 · Comment: The new UN fund can channel taxes and other innovative ways of raising money to pay for climate loss and damage – we just have to decide to apply them
Residents sift through the rubble as they recover their belongings after the Nairobi river burst its banks and destroyed their homes within the Mathare Valley settlement in Nairobi, Kenya, April 25, 2024. (Photo: REUTERS/Monicah Mwangi)
Avinash Persaud is Special Advisor to the President of the Inter-American Development Bank on Climate Change. Previously he was a member of the negotiation committee to establish the Loss and Damage Fund and an architect of the original ‘Bridgetown Initiative’ on ... | By Avinash Persaud Read more ...
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G7 offers tepid response to appeal for “bolder” climate action - Climate Change News - Finance (Apr 30) |
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Apr 30 · Climate and energy ministers from G7 nations agreed a coal exit deadline – with a caveat, but made little progress on other fossil fuels and finance
Climate and energy ministers from G7 countries speaking after a summit in Turin. Photo: G7 Italy
When UN climate chief Simon Stiell addressed climate and energy ministers from the G7 group of rich nations on Monday, he issued a frank message: “It is utter nonsense to claim the G7 cannot – or should not – lead the way on bolder climate actions.”
He added those countries should be “leading from the front” through much deeper emissions cuts, and bigger and better climate finance.
A day later, the ... | By Matteo Civillini Read more ...
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Southern Africa drought flags dilemma for loss and damage fund - Climate Change News - Finance (Apr 29) |
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Apr 29 · Scientists blame the current drought on El Niño – which could exclude those affected from receiving aid for climate-change damage
Residents of Pumula East township walk home after fetching water from a well, (March 7, 2024. REUTERS/KB Mpofu)
Since January, swathes of southern Africa have been suffering from a severe drought, which has destroyed crops, spread disease and caused mass hunger. But its causes have raised tough questions for the new UN fund for climate change losses.
Christopher Dabu, a priest in Lusitu parish in southern Zambia, one of the affected regions, said that because of the drought, his parishioners “have nothing”- including ... | By Joe Lo Read more ...
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Limiting frontline voices in the Loss and Damage Fund is a recipe for disaster - Climate Change News - Finance (Apr 26) |
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Apr 26 · Comment: Representatives of groups hardest-hit by the climate crisis say restrictions on their participation at the fund’s first board meeting set a worrying precedent
Youth and other civil society groups hold a protest calling for a full, funded and fair transition away from fossil fuels at the COP28 climate summit venue in Dubai, UAE on December 12, 2023. (Photo: Megan Rowling)
Isatis M. Cintron-Rodriguez is a Puerto Rican climate scientist and staff associate at Columbia University’s Earth Institute. Liane Schalatek is associate director at the Heinrich Boell Stiftung Washington with expertise in UN climate funds and finance. Lien Vandamme is senior ... | By Liane Schalatek, Lien Vandamme and Isatis Cintron-Rodriguez Read more ...
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Will blossom of reform bear fruit? Spring Meetings leave too much to do - Climate Change News - Finance (Apr 25) |
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Apr 25 · Comment: Changes are afoot at the IMF and World Bank – but debt-squeezed developing nations need far faster access to more finance for climate action
International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva holds a press briefing on the Global Policy Agenda to open the IMF and World Bank's 2024 annual Spring Meetings in Washington, U.S., April 18, 2024. (Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)
Rachel Kyte is professor of practice in climate policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford.
With spring in full bloom, the world’s finance ministers, development and financial leaders, and philanthropists met for the World Bank and ... | By Rachel Kyte Read more ...
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Global billionaires tax to fight climate change, hunger rises up political agenda - Climate Change News - Finance (Apr 19) |
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Apr 19 · Brazil and France want the G20 to get behind a global minimum tax on billionaires’ wealth, also backed by IMF chief, but Germany rejects the idea
French Minister for Economy, Finance, Industry and Digital Security Bruno Le Maire (L) and Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad arrive at a joint press briefing on taxation during IMF/World Bank Sprint meeting in Washington on April 17, 2024. Photo by Yuri Gripas/ABACAPRESS.COMNo
The finance ministers of Brazil and France pushed this week for a tax on US-dollar billionaires of at least 2% of their wealth each year, with the $250 billion it could raise going to tackle poverty, hunger and climate ... | By Joe Lo Read more ...
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Fossil fuel debts are illegitimate and must be cancelled - Climate Change News - Finance (Apr 16) |
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Apr 16 · Comment: The Spring Meetings of the World Bank and IMF are a chance to transform outstanding debts for fossil fuel projects into grants for renewable energy systems
Climate activists protest demanding that the World Bank stop fossil fuel financing, on the fifth day of the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, in Marrakech, Morocco October 13, 2023. (Photo/REUTERS/Susana Vera)
Lidy Nacpil is coordinator of the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD).
Many countries in the Global South are burdened with huge public debts. These rising debts are a drain on public resources that are urgently needed for sustainable ... | By Lidy Nacpil Read more ...
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World Bank climate funding greens African hotels while fishermen sink - Climate Change News - Finance (Apr 16) |
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Apr 16 · Climate Home reveals that the World Bank Group has counted support for luxury hotels as climate finance, which experts say fails the most vulnerable
Fishers in Mbour, Senegal, just miles from the hotel resort of Saly, unload the day's catch. (Photo: Jack Thompson)
The spotless white-sand beach of Le Lamantin luxury resort in Saly, about 90 kilometres south of Senegal’s capital Dakar, is lined with neat rows of sun loungers and parasols. Here, holidaymakers enjoy jet-skiing, catamaran-sailing and spa therapy, unaware that their hotel is benefiting from international climate finance channelled through the World Bank Group.
Just a few kilometres further south, ... | By Matteo Civillini and Jack Thompson Read more ...
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SBTi needs tighter rules on companies’ indirect emissions - Climate Change News - Finance (Apr 11) |
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Apr 11 · Comment: Businesses are not required to cut all their value chain emissions in line with a 1.5C warming limit – and allowing offsetting could weaken efforts further
Greenpeace activist protest at a pension fund in Luxembourg (Photo: Sara Poza Alvarez/Flickr)
Silke Mooldijk works at the NewClimate Institute and is part of the core team behind the Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor.
A decade ago, the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) was launched with the goal of mobilising the private sector for climate action.
Today, it stands as the largest and most influential validator of corporate climate targets, having confirmed the 2030 goals of ... | By Silke Mooldijk Read more ...
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In Somalia, Green Climate Fund tests new approach for left-out communities - Climate Change News - Finance (Mar 19, 2024) |
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Mar 19, 2024 · GCF head Mafalda Duarte promises a more proactive plan to bring cash to the most vulnerable countries struggling with climate impacts
Mafalda Duarte was appointed last year as executive director of the UN fund. Photo: Green Climate Fund
One of the world’s most vulnerable countries, Somalia is bearing the brunt of climate extremes.
A two-year drought – its worst in decades – was followed last November by devastating floods. The double crisis is estimated to have killed tens of thousands of people, displaced millions more, destroyed livelihoods, and exacerbated severe hunger and water scarcity.
For the East African nation, this was not just a ... | By Matteo Civillini Read more ...
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Fossil fuel firms seek UN carbon market cash for old gas plants - Climate Change News - Finance (Mar 07, 2024) |
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Mar 07, 2024 · Fossil fuel companies that built gas power plants more than a decade ago are hoping for rewards from a new carbon credit market
Workers are seen silhouetted near a liquified natural gas (LNG) storage tank at PetroChina's receiving terminal at Rudong port in Nantong, Jiangsu province, China, September 4, 2018. (Reuters/Stringer)
Fossil fuel companies are aiming to profit from a new United Nations’ carbon market by selling carbon credits linked to gas-fired power plants they have already built.
At the Cop28 climate summit last December, governments agreed to set up a new global carbon credit market under Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement – and a host of ... | By Joe Lo Read more ...
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UN climate fund axes Nicaragua forest project over human rights concerns - Climate Change News - Finance (Mar 07, 2024) |
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Mar 07, 2024 · In the first such decision since its creation, the Green Climate Fund pulled out of a project in Nicaragua after developers failed to address environmental and social compliance issues
An agriculture worker in Nicaragua, where the GCF pulled out of a project after a human rights complaint. (Photo: Green Climate Fund)
The UN’s flagship climate fund has pulled out of a forest conservation project in Nicaragua after local community groups complained about a lack of protection in the face of escalating human rights violations in the area.
It is the first such decision the Green Climate Fund (GCF) has taken since its creation in 2010.
The GCF said on Thursday it ... | By Matteo Civillini and Sebastian Rodriguez Read more ...
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How to hold shipping financially accountable for its climate impacts - Climate Change News - Finance (Mar 05, 2024) |
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Mar 05, 2024 · A levy on shipping emissions will be discussed by governments at IMO talks this month, with climate-vulnerable nations seeking funding from the industry
A view of Barbados-flagged bulk carrier "Lycavitos" on the sea off Koh Sichang, Thailand, February 20, 2023. (Reuters/Geir Vinnes/Handout)
Discussions about climate finance are usually framed around national borders: wealthy countries rightfully paying more than less-developed states for their historic responsibility in the climate crisis.
But holding only countries accountable for the damage done to our planet lets other polluters, often much larger than some major economies, off the hook.
We have a unique ... | By Ana Laranjeira Read more ...
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When governments fund fossil fuels, it’s time to take them to court - Climate Change News - Finance (Feb 28, 2024) |
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Feb 28, 2024 · A new wave of climate litigation is targeting state institutions that are still providing public finance for fossil fuels, despite pledges to turn off the funding tap
A warning sign for a natural gas pipeline is seen as natural gas flares at an oil pump site outside of Williston, North Dakota, March 11, 2013. (REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton)
Today’s climate crisis is already worse than scientists predicted, yet governments continue to pour billions of dollars of public funds into the single-biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions: fossil fuels.
Activists have been protesting against this for years, and now we’re seeing the fight spill into courtrooms. In the face of ... | By Maria Alejandra Vesga Correa, Leanne Govindsamy and Lorenzo Fiorilli Read more ...
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Loss and damage must be a focus of IPCC’s next reports - Climate Change News - Finance (Feb 16, 2024) |
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Feb 16, 2024 · Without proper interventions anchored on the latest and best available science, even more people would be vulnerable to disastrous impacts of tremendous economic and non-economic costs.
The aftermath of Supertyphoon Haiyan/Yolanda. Tropical storms are set to get fiercer with climate change (Pic: UN photos)
The reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have been influential in the history of the global climate negotiations.
Its third and fourth Assessment Reports helped elevate adaptating to climate change into a critical issue on par with reducing emissions.
The United Nations-sanctioned organisation is in a position to once again push ... | By John Lee Algo Read more ...
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Blended finance can perpetuate climate colonialism - Climate Change News - Finance (Feb 15, 2024) |
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Feb 15, 2024 · ‘Blended finance’ took centre stage at Cop28, with the Green Climate Fund among its supporters. But there are still major problems with the concept that must be addressed before considering any further expansion.
An off-grid solar panel installed in Limpopo, South Africa (Photo: Mujahid Safodien / Greenpeace)
‘Blended finance’ took centre stage at Cop28, with the Green Climate Fund among its supporters. But there are still major problems with the concept that must be addressed before considering any further expansion. Blended finance is a combination of public concessional finance (i.e. with more generous terms than the market) with private or ... | By Farwa Sial Read more ...
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US trade agency backs oil and gas drilling in Bahrain despite Biden pledge - Climate Change News - Finance (Feb 09, 2024) |
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Feb 09, 2024 · Ex-Im’s financing would boost fossil fuel production in the Gulf state with the construction of over 450 new oil and gas wells
Bahrain has one of the oldest oil and gas fields in the Middle East. Credit: Michele Solmi/Flickr
The United States is set to invest public money in the expansion of oil and gas production in Bahrain despite the Biden administration’s pledges to end support for fossil fuel projects overseas.
The US Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) – a federal export credit agency – is pushing ahead with plans to back the drilling of more than 450 new oil and gas wells in one of the oldest extraction fields across the Middle ... | By Matteo Civillini Read more ...
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“Shameful”: Shell uses carbon credits under investigation to meet climate targets - Climate Change News - Finance (Feb 02, 2024) |
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Feb 02, 2024 · The oil and gas giant offset part of its emissions with over a million credits from Chinese projects suspended because of integrity concerns
Greenpeace protesters erect a spoof billboard outside Shell’s HQ. Photo: Chris J Ratcliffe / Greenpeace
Oil and gas giant Shell is counting discredited carbon credits towards its climate goals, drawing accusations of “bad faith” and “malintent”.
Last month, Shell used rice farming carbon credits to offset a chunk of its annual emissions, claiming to reduce the “carbon intensity” of its fossil fuel products.
But experts have long argued that the sellers of these offsets are over-counting their emissions ... | By Matteo Civillini Read more ...
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Junk offset sellers push to enter new UN carbon market - Climate Change News - Finance (Jan 18, 2024) |
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Jan 18, 2024 · Renewable energy schemes make up four-fifths of Kyoto-era projects hoping to keep selling offsets under Article 6, sparking concerns over the credibility of the new market.
Chinese wind farms are among the most prevalent CDM projects seeking transition. Photo: Asian Development Bank
Developers are trying to keep selling offsets from hundreds of controversial projects through a revamped United Nations mechanism, sparking fears that worthless credits will allow companies and countries to pollute.
Climate Home analysis shows that renewable energy investments make up four-fifths of all projects seeking a transfer from the old Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to the ... | By Matteo Civillini Read more ...
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Witness bribing minister’s family own Congolese carbon credit company - Climate Change News - Finance (Jan 11, 2024) |
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Jan 11, 2024 · The minister Jean-Pierre Bemba bribed witnesses in his war crimes trial and holds power over the environment minister Eve Bazaiba
Jean-Pierre Bemba attends his trial at the International Criminal Court (Photos: International Criminal Court)
Family members of a powerful government minister in the Democratic Republic of Congo accused of war crimes have set up a carbon offsets company in the country, sparking fears the company will get favourable government treatment.
The Societe Conservation Forestiere (SCF) was set up in December 2022 and is co-owned by two adult children of the DRC’s defence minister Jean-Pierre Bemba, who was accused of war crimes and found ... | By Joe Lo Read more ...
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First ever Paris Agreement offsets face integrity questions - Climate Change News - Finance (Jan 09, 2024) |
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Jan 09, 2024 · As Switzerland buys the first ever bilateral offsets, civil society’s analysis suggests the claimed emissions reductions from Thai buses would have happened anyway
The offsetting scheme is replacing petrol-fueled buses with electric ones in Bangkok. Photo: Ian Fuller
The first-ever exchange of carbon credits between countries under a new Paris Agreement mechanism is facing criticism over whether the offsets deliver the emission reductions claimed.
Switzerland has bought from Thailand the first batch of carbon offsets under the mechanism, created through the rollout of electric buses in the Thai capital Bangkok as part of a bilateral partnership.
It is ... | By Matteo Civillini Read more ...
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Slow start for Indonesia’s much-hyped carbon market - Climate Change News - Finance (Nov 20, 2023) |
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Nov 20, 2023 · Since President Widodo launched Indonesia’s exchange two months ago, there’s been barely any trading of carbon credits
The Indonesia Stock Exchange building in Jakarta's central business district (Photo credit: Andrew Prawiro)
In September, Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo opened the country’s first carbon exchange IDX Carbon, declaring “this is Indonesia’s real contribution to fight with the world against climate crisis”.
In the launch video, a calm female voice makes a plea over jangly guitar. “Join us to accelerate net zero with more transparency, liquidity and efficiency,” she says, as a headless businessman fondles a hologram of a globe.
Two ... | By Joseph Rachman Read more ...
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France, Kenya set to launch Cop28 coalition for global taxes to fund climate action - Climate Change News - Finance (Nov 16, 2023) |
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Nov 16, 2023 · The taskforce, set to be launched at Cop28, will consider the feasibility of levies on shipping, aviation, financial transactions and fossil fuels.
William Ruto and Emmanuel Macron have been driving forward the initiative over the last few months. Credit: Laurent Blevennec / Présidence de la République
France and Kenya are set to launch an international taxation taskforce at Cop28 to push for new levies to raise more money for climate action.
The governments are in advanced discussions with a handful of European and Global South countries that could join the coalition in Dubai, according to a source with knowledge of the talks.
The taskforce is planning to ... | By Matteo Civillini Read more ...
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The OECD must take its chance to stop funding oil and gas - Climate Change News - Finance (Nov 06, 2023) |
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Nov 06, 2023 · Export credit agencies are still backing oil and gas projects – this week’s OECD meeting is a chance to change that
The OECD's headquarters pictured after a snowstorm in Paris in 2018 (Photo credit: Herve Cortinat/OECD)
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is meeting in Paris this week for its annual forum. On the negotiating table is a once-in-a-decade opportunity to end the flow of public money into fossil fuels, but you’d be forgiven for not knowing about it.
The OECD is made up of a group of primarily wealthy countries, who collectively set their own standards around big global issues like tax, trade and the ... | By Sandrine Dixson-Decleve Read more ...
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Rich nations offer loans not grants for Vietnam’s coal transition - Climate Change News - Finance (Oct 30, 2023) |
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Oct 30, 2023 · The G7 has offered to mobilise $15.5 billion to get Vietnam from coal to clean energy but just 2% of this is grants
Workers walk near an excavator loading coal onto a truck at a coal port in Hanoi in 2012. (REUTERS/Kham/File Photo)
Members of the G7 group of wealthy nations offered Vietnam more than $300 million in grants to support plans to reduce coal use, documents seen by Reuters show, accounting for 2% of a financial package made up mostly of costly loans that Hanoi has been reluctant to accept.
The documents, which were finalised by donor countries in late October, reveal for the first time the breakdown of the $15.5 billion pledge that G7 countries and ... | By Reuters and Joe Lo Read more ...
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The EU is about to revive a failed climate solution - Climate Change News - Finance (Oct 23, 2023) |
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Oct 23, 2023 · Comment: The EU once led the world in combatting flawed forest offset schemes. Now it’s looking to give them a new lease of life.
Greenpeace activists raise a banner against the giant globe at the centre of the COP26 conference hall in Glasgow. Photo: Emily Macinnes / Greenpeace
Since their inception more than 30 years ago, carbon offsets have given false comfort to those seeking easy solutions to the climate crisis.
Encouraging one party to continue pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, while paying another to do the opposite has been a giant diversion: side-tracking us from decarbonising our economies and lives.
One scandal after another has ... | By Kathleen McAfee and Kate Dooley Read more ...
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China’s Belt and Road gets ‘green’ reboot and spending boost - Climate Change News - Finance (Oct 19, 2023) |
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Oct 19, 2023 · Clean energy is a priority as China promises $100 billion of development funding – but don’t call it climate finance
Xi Jinping addresses the UN in 2017 (Photo credit: United Nations Geneva)
China has raised clean energy among the priorities of its flagship international investment programme, while promising an extra $100 billion in development funding.
President Xi Jinping said China will “further deepen cooperation” in green infrastructure and energy projects with developing countries as part of a reboot of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Xi unveiled his plans at a glitzy summit celebrating the ten-year anniversary of the ... | By Matteo Civillini Read more ...
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Saudi Arabia, Russia urge World Bank to keep funding fossil fuels - Climate Change News - Finance (Oct 12, 2023) |
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Oct 12, 2023 · Major oil and gas producers hit back at World Bank reforms that aim to channel more money into clean energy
A gas field in the Yamal Peninsula in Russia. Photo: Russian Government
Russia, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states have urged the World Bank to keep funding fossil fuel as a way to guarantee energy access across the world, as the lender pursues green reforms.
During a meeting of the bank’s steering committee in Marrakech, Morocco, they voiced opposition to reforms which are expected to channel more money into clean energy projects.
Mohammed Aljadaan, the Saudi finance minister, said “hydrocarbons will continue to play an important role in ... | By Matteo Civillini Read more ...
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