Africa calls for climate finance tracker

African countries want a new system to track funding from wealthy nations that are failing to meet a $100-billion annual target. Africa’s lead climate negotiator said that this is to help the developing world tackle climate change. The demand highlights tensions ahead of the COP26 climate summit. The world’s 20 largest economies, which are behind 80% of greenhouse gas emissions, and developing countries that are bearing the brunt of the effects of global warming are all those comes under this.

Tanguy Gahouma, chair of the African Group of Negotiators at COP26 said that if they prove that someone is responsible for something, it is his responsibility to pay for that. In 2009, developed countries agreed to raise $100 billion per year by 2020. This is for helping the developing world deal with the fallout from a warming planet. The latest available estimates from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) showed that this funding hit $79.6 billion in 2019.

The OECD data shows that the Asian countries on an average received 43% of the climate finance in 2016-19. Gahouma said a more detailed shared system was needed. This would keep tabs on each country’s contribution. Gahouma added that they say they achieved maybe 70% of the target, but they cannot see that. They need to have a clear roadmap on how they will put on the table the $100 billion per year. They also don’t have time to lose and Africa is one of the most vulnerable regions of the world.

Temperatures in Africa are rising at a faster rate than the global average. Further, warming will lead to more extreme heatwaves, severe coastal flooding and intense rainfall on the continent. Even as wealthy nations miss the $100 billion target, African countries plan to push for this funding to be scaled up more than tenfold by 2030. The $100 billion was a political commitment. And it was not based on the real needs of developing countries to tackle the climate change.

African countries are facing an extra challenge at the talks. This is because of the administrative hurdles to enter the Britain. And also, to travelling during the pandemic. Limited delegations, with a very huge amount of work and limited time will be very challenging.