Developing countries need between $310 billion and $365 billion every year to protect people, agriculture, water systems and infrastructure from the escalating climate crisis. Yet they receive only a fraction of this amount. At the same time, wealthy governments responsible for much of the historic carbon pollution are cutting foreign aid and climate-finance commitments.
The United States and the United Kingdom have reduced their pledges to the UN-backed Green Climate Fund by $4 billion and £800 million respectively. These cuts come as extreme heat, floods, droughts and storms increasingly destroy livelihoods across countries that contributed least to global warming.
Instead of providing public grants as a matter of climate justice, governments are attempting to attract private investors through “blended finance”. But climate adaptation—such as flood protection, support for small farmers and resilient public infrastructure—often does not generate quick profits. The private sector has so far supplied only around 3 per cent of the adaptation finance required by developing countries.
This exposes the central failure of the market-based climate agenda. Human survival is being made dependent on whether banks, insurance companies and multinational corporations can extract financial returns. The poorest and conflict-affected countries, which offer fewer profit opportunities, risk being abandoned completely.
Public climate finance is not charity. It is a debt owed by wealthy, high-emitting countries to the people now paying for a crisis they did not create. Governments must stop cutting aid, make polluters pay and provide accessible grants for community-controlled climate adaptation.
🔗 Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/climate-adaptation-finance-heat-aid-b3008295.html
