MULTILATERAL development banks, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and World Bank, have committed higher climate financing as the V20 Group called on developed nations to deliver on their Paris Agreement climate assistance commitments.
The V20 Group, composed of the most vulnerable countries to climate change—the Philippines included—demanded for a “2020-2024 delivery plan” for the missing $100 billion annual Paris Agreement climate assistance.
During the recent V20 Ministerial Dialogue, V20 Chair HE AHM Mustafa Kamal appealed to multilateral banks to stand by the V20 and make financing more accessible.
“As members of V20 countries, it is our responsibility to work out a sustainable solution to combat the adverse impact of climate change,” Kamal said.
“In this regard, I request the representatives of the international financial institutions, multilateral development banks and development partners to stand beside our initiatives firmly, with the required technology and resources. Lives and livelihoods of 1.2 billion people of V20 countries could be saved through this initiative,” he added.
In his remarks at last week’s first “Climate Vulnerables Finance Summit” and “V20 Ministerial Dialogue VII,” ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa said the bank will make every effort to achieve its climate finance goal.
This goal is to provide at least $80 billion between 2019 and 2030 for climate finance. He also said the ADB plans to scale up its investments in adaptation and resilience to $9 billion between 2019 and 2024.
Asakawa said the ADB also aims to fully align its sovereign operations by July 2023 and non-sovereign operations by July 2025 to the Paris Agreement. By July 2023, the ADB’s non-sovereign operations will be 85 percent aligned with the agreement, according to the bank.
“ADB is partnering with countries in the region, not only to enable the implementation of their ‘Nationally Determined Contributions,’ but also to ensure that our own operations are aligned with the Paris Agreement,” Asakawa said.
Meanwhile, World Bank President David Malpass said that over the next five years, the bank will allocate 35 percent of financing across the World Bank Group for climate investments.
Malpass added that at least 50 percent of the Washington-based lender’s climate finance will be dedicated for adaptation investments.
Further, apart from direct finance, Malpass said the bank is also deploying concessional finance and political risk insurance to unlock private capital for climate investments.
“We’re also thinking about how to have an impact beyond providing direct finance. Public budgets alone are not enough for the scale of climate investments we need, so we are also mobilizing private investment,” Malpass said.
The V20 Communiqué urged individual developed countries that have failed their contributions towards ensuring the collective $100 billion per year in climate finance support to take urgent steps to fulfill their part of the agreed funding well prior to COP26, for the sake of international climate action and cooperation.
The group said developed countries were called upon to indicate how and when they will catch up with a concrete ‘Delivery Plan’ outlining the way in which the entirety of the agreed financing will be met during and over the years 2020-2024.
The V20 also urged developed countries to align their contributions under UN agreements by allocating public international climate finance to ensure at least 50 percent of resources for urgent adaptation needs as the climate crisis continued to disproportionately plague economies most exposed to its risks amid the Covid pandemic’s shocks.
The Communiqué indicated that annual levels of loss and damage caused by climate consequences in the V20 were already more costly than any amount of climate finance received or promised by the richest, most responsible nations.
Formed in 2015 with originally 20 members, the V20 Group of Finance Ministers of the member states of the Climate Vulnerable Forum is a dedicated cooperation initiative of economies systematically vulnerable to climate change.
The V20 membership stands at 48 economies including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Barbados, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Colombia, Comoros, Costa Rica, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Fiji, The Gambia, Ghana, Grenada and Guatemala.
The list also includes Haiti, Honduras, Kenya, Kiribati, Lebanon, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Morocco, Nepal, Niger, Palau, Palestine, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Rwanda, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Senegal, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Tunisia, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Viet Nam and Yemen.