Page 6 - FSUOGM Week 44 2021

FSUOGM COMMENTARY FSUOGM

official status as a developed country at the UN such as India, China and Indonesia.
climate convention. The International Energy Agency (IEA) exec-
Erdogan announced at the end of October utive director Fatih Birol stressed recently that
that it had signed $3.2bn of Green Climate Fund the leaders meeting in Glasgow must communi-
loans in order to meet the clean energy goals out- cate that any future investment in fossil fuels will
lined in the Paris climate accord, suggesting that lose money, ICIS reported.
it has made some headway in gaining access to “I’d like to see the world leaders coming
climate finance. together and giving a message to the rest of the
world, saying to investors: ‘We are united behind
Developing countries a clean energy future [and] we are giving you an
Meanwhile, for developing nations in Africa unmistakable signal: If you continue to invest
and Asia, the effects of climate change are more in fossil fuels, you may risk losing money,’” said
urgent, as they are more vulnerable to climate Birol.
change-induced catastrophes such as floods, The agency wants a range of incentives, such
droughts and wildfires. as carbon pricing mechanisms, green legislation
For example, the UN has warned that the and an end to any licensing of fossil fuel projects.
continent is especially vulnerable to high levels A key challenge is scaling up technology, as
of migration because of climate change, as even while the technology exists to reach net zero,
though sub-Saharan Africa has contributed the much of it is very much in its infancy and exper-
least to global warming, the continent will expe- imental. As solar panels and wind turbines have
rience the most devastating impacts of climate fallen in price in recent years, governments and
change. companies must ensure that similar falls in costs,
A key issue is for OECD nations to fulfil their accompanied by rapid increases in engineering
pledge to raise climate finance to $100bn per and construction capacity, emerge for such tech-
year. Rich nations have so far failed to reach this nology as carbon capture, hydrogen fuel and
target – commitments reached $80bn in 2019 batteries.
and the $100bn milestone is only now antici-
pated in 2023. Showing up
Poorer nations are also calling for stronger The central target is to limit global warming
emissions cuts and financial compensation for to 1.5°C by 2100, but there is still no detail on
the impacts they are expected to suffer from cli- what pathways to follow to reach this target. This
mate change. means information about how much it will cost
Poor nations also want more help for adap- and who will pay, and what sorts of technology
tation, a catch-all term for efforts to make local will be used and when.
societies and infrastructure more resilient to the It would be a bonus, indeed a triumph of
impact of climate change. They want COP26 to diplomacy, if COP26 is able to deliver agreement
define a Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) and on any of these details.
to commit to allocating at least 50% of climate Finance, especially issues such as putting
finance to adaptation. price on carbon, carbon taxes and the operation
of carbon markets, will also be a major issue at
Climate finance the conference, and again any agreement will be
The recent price volatility in energy markets will hailed as progress by the world’s governments.
also concentrate minds on how this will be paid If there can be agreement on $100bn per year
for in the decades to come, and how government in finance for the developing world, then again
efforts to increase renewables share of energy the world’s richest countries will be able to claim
supply could be influenced negatively by price a victory.
shocks and supply threats. However, the G20 conference has not man-
What policymakers must do is send clear sig- aged to come up with any momentum to COP26.
nals to global investors that investing the requi- UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on the
site sums is worthwhile. evening of October 31: “If Glasgow fails, then the
One key metric is the falling cost of renewa- whole thing fails.”
bles has made green investment just as attractive, US President Joe Biden added to the negative
and is in some cases a better bet, than investing tone by expressing disappointment that Russia
in fossil fuels, especially in large Asian markets and China basically didn't show up."™

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 44 03•November•2021