Worrying Gives Us Wrinkles. Give Us Money Instead. 

The anticipation of what leaders would or would not announce on climate finance had our hearts pounding. Yesterday calmed some of those nerves. Hot on the heels of Canada’s pledge, other countries joined the party, making commitments to the Least Developed Country Fund. Norway, Sweden and Spain also increased their climate finance commitments.

That’s not a bad start. But ECO doesn’t want to come to every COP to worry about donor countries committing to much needed climate finance. Developed countries could ease ECO’s nerves by guaranteeing predictability, adequacy and clarity of their financial pledges, as they scale up climate finance to US$100 billion annually by 2020. This is particularly urgent for developing countries that need to prioritise adaptation while facing a shortfall in financial support.  

ECO urges developed countries to build on the climate finance momentum generated on Monday, not just through COP21, but also to 2020 and beyond. Strong language around credible, adequate, and predictable finance in the Paris agreement would smooth our wrinkles and unfurrow our brows.