(VOVWORLD) - The world is losing the race to meet its climate change goals, the president of the upcoming COP28 summit said on Tuesday, as African leaders called for changes to what they say is an unfair international climate finance system.
 UAE Industry Minister Sultan Al Jaber attends the Bonn Climate Change Conference in Germany, June 8, 2023. (Photo: REUTERS) |
The assessment by Sultan Al Jaber, who will preside over the summit in the UAE in late November, came days before the UN publishes its first “global stocktake”, an assessment of how nations are doing in their efforts to tackle climate change.
While Africa is suffering from some of the most severe impacts of climate change, the continent only receives about 12% of the financing it needs to cope, according to researchers. Hundreds of millions of dollars of investments in sustainable development projects were announced on Monday, and Jaber announced on Tuesday the UAE was pledging 4.5 billion USD to develop 15 GW of clean power in Africa by 2030.
African officials say the investments are welcome but that meeting the continent's financing needs will require a transformation of the global climate financing architecture, particularly given governments' high debt loads.
African states plan to push at the COP28 for the expansion of special drawing rights at the International Monetary Fund that could unlock 500 billion USD worth of climate finance, which could be leveraged up to five times.