Antonio Guterres began by apologizing. Due to a United Nations Security Council meeting devoted to Ukraine, the UN secretary-general was unable to attend all the debates at the Climate Ambition Summit on Wednesday, September 20. But he went on to make his point, nonetheless, unequivocally condemning the "shameful behavior" of those who are set to fail to meet the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050. He denounced those who are preparing a "2.8°C warmer world" and the inertia that is pushing humanity to the "gates of hell." He ended on a call to action: "The future is not written: it is up to you, the leaders, to write it."
At the end of a summer marked by a litany of extreme climate events, this summit comes just over two months ahead of COP28, to be held in Dubai from November 30 to December 12. The key issue in the negotiations, the one that must be resolved before any ambitious outcome can be envisaged, remains the flow of aid and funding from North to South. This subject was the common thread running through all the speeches made by developing countries.
"Developed countries are asking us to build a resilient future when they can't even feed and build the 'loss and damage' fund," said Mia Mottley, prime minister of Barbados, calling on the West to mobilize its resources the way it did for the war in Ukraine. "The loss and damage has already hit our coasts," echoed David Kabua, president of the Republic of the Marshall Islands.
By the end of 2022, the various parties had reached agreement on the creation of this "loss and damage" fund but since then, the matter has become bogged down. The architecture of the fund has not yet been finalized and its scope has not yet been defined. On Wednesday, Guterres invited only speakers with progress to report – in the absence of the United States and China – but several countries took the opportunity to unveil new contributions. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz highlighted the $2.2 billion (up 33% on 2019) contributed to the Green Climate Fund, which helps finance climate action in developing countries. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has pledged $225 million. On the same day, France announced its contribution of $1.79 billion (a rise of 4%).
For their part, developing countries are still hoping that the $100 billion mark promised in aid at COP15 in Copenhagen in 2009 will finally be reached. "Financing is a prerequisite for the rest. If we are to be more ambitious on mitigation at COP28, we need to make progress on this issue," said Sébastien Treyer, director of the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI). "The secretary-general of the United Nations has rightly demanded that the countries of the North come up with new pledges. The aim of this rule is to better demonstrate responsibility and ensure that climate action is not drowned out by hollow language."
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