Climate and Development Lab
Connect with the CDL on Twitter:
  • Home
  • About
    • Authors
    • Alumni
  • CDL in the News
  • Publications
    • Scholarly Articles & Chapters
    • Policy Briefings
    • Books & Special Issues
    • Submissions to the UNFCCC
  • Projects
  • Multimedia
  • Contact

Why it's time to come clean on climate finance

11/11/2016

 
By Caroline Jones and Thomas Culver
Picture
​In the year since the meeting of the UNFCCC in Paris, we’ve had many reasons to start feeling hopeful about making meaningful strides against climate change.

Global investment in renewable energy has hit a record high, we’ve seen remarkable dedication to reduced emissions from individual cities and civil society groups, and the global summit on the phase-out of HFC’s in Rwanda this October have all been concrete reasons to see the Paris Agreement as a success.

While these are victories worth celebrating, the past year has hardly been without its pitfalls.
If the ‘name and shame’ mechanism for accountability on climate action – upon which the success of Paris hinges, in the stead of any binding legal agreement – is to have any hope for success, transparency in the reporting of climate finance is absolutely crucial.

Sadly, in the past year, we have observed a backward slide. In spite of the increased attention paid in Paris to the transparency gap, the distance between donor countries’ pledged climate adaptation finance and the trackable reality – our systematic review of the reports wealthy nations submit to the UN show that the gap has expanded since the Paris negotiations.

You heard that right: donor countries as a group are becoming less transparent in reporting their climate finance. In compiling the new report AdaptationWatch Towards Transparency, we analyzed the climate finance reporting of 23 countries and the European Union and compared them with transparency benchmarks set forth by the UNFCCC.

Our overall conclusion was disheartening: The information reporting in countries’ 2016 biennial reports scored only 52% of available points, compared with a 58% average for their 2014 reports.

Donor countries are generally failing to report several vitally important components of their climate financing.

In our analysis, we concluded that the 2016 biennial reports of donor countries were gravely inadequate in reporting how much of their total funding was directed to Small Island Developing States or Least Developed Countries, how contributions are being allocated to specific projects, and on how donor countries are planning on contributing to the $100 billion per year level of climate financing agreed to at COP15.

A lack of transparency in these areas could have dire impacts beyond these reports: transparent climate financing is essential in building the trust between developed and developing countries that undergirds the entire climate negotiation process.

If developing countries are not keeping their end of the bargain, they threaten the very foundation of the Paris Agreement.

This is not to say that there are not bright spots of improved transparency in the 2016 biennial reports. According to our analysis, five countries and the European Union improved their climate finance reporting, and one did not decline.

Despite these bright spots, however, we cannot overlook the worsening reporting of 17 of 23 developed countries in the last reporting period. This kind of decline demands serious and immediate changes on the part of donor countries.

With so many persistent problems in the international effort to slow the onslaught on climate-related impacts — from insufficient funding to inefficient implementation — how does transparency on the part of donor countries factor into the fight against climate change?

In a word: trust. Transparency in the reporting of climate finance is crucial for building and maintaining trust among nations, if the international community is to reach agreement on solving the existential problem of climate change.

Operating without the safety net of a legally binding agreement, our hope for bold improvements in emissions reductions by large and small emitters alike is predicated on trust and mutual accountability.

This trust is perhaps even more crucial for the least developed countries, for whom emissions reductions can mean slower economic development; if they are expected to slow their own growth by deviating from the path of development via carbon emissions taken by most of the world’s largest emitters, they need to be fully confident that they will be met at least halfway by the donor countries who have pledged their support.

Climate finance is at the core of the UNFCCC’s efforts to help the developing world adequately adapt to climate change, and is absolutely critical to poor countries’ abilities to prepare and protect themselves from climate change’s impacts.

While transparency in adaptation finance might not be as sexy as other issues in the climate change debate (we’re far more likely to see dramatic shots of lonely polar bears on melting ice caps than we are to see accountants tabulating distributed funds), it is nonetheless an essential key to meaningful progress.

With COP22 in Marrakesh less than a week away, negotiators, NGOs, and civil society organizations must focus their efforts on improving upon the progress made on transparency in Paris last year.

While the Paris Agreement that emerged in 2015 is a considerable improvement on previous accords in including substantial language on transparency, it still lacks clear procedures for reporting on funding and resources to flow to developing countries for adaptation in a reliable and transparent way.

Moving forward, there are concrete steps that can be taken at the Marrakesh conference to recover from and improve on the backsliding in transparency we’ve seen in the past two years.
  • First and foremost, a clear and universal system of accounting modalities for climate finance must be developed, with a clear way to determine what counts as adaptation and mitigation.
  • Second, project tracking and data checking from the OECD CRS system should be continued, but we should leave behind the outdated Rio Marker categorization system.
  • Finally, we should develop a universally accessible online tracker for climate finance. Ideally, this program will be accessible, comprehensive, and user-friendly – not flooding users with excessive and confusing data, but neither obscuring the information necessary for real accountability.
This will help to enable the mechanism of peer review and accountability, so that recipient and donor countries alike will be held to the more than reasonable standard of living up to their word.

We must not let the momentum generated by the Paris Agreement and its successive achievements be forestalled by our own unwillingness or inability to be honest and unambiguous about climate finance. The case for transparency has never been more clear.

Originally published in ClimateHome.


Comments are closed.
    Tweets by @ClimateDevLab
    CDL in the News

    28 Dec 2018 - Edwards in the NYT on electric vehicles in Latin America

    24 Dec 2018 - The Public's Radio RI interviews Roberts on how the fossil fuel industry outspends environmental groups on campaign contributions & lobbying

    19 Dec 2018 - EcoRI News: New Report Claims RI Climate Council Falling Behind Targets

    17 Dec 2018 - 'We must move beyond business as usual,' says new report on Rhode Island's inadequate climate plan.

    12 Dec 2018 - 
    Isabel Cavelier, Guy Edwards and Lina Puerto “COP25 en 2019: reto y oportunidad para elevar la ambición climática en América Latina” El Espectador

    4 Dec 2018 - Whitehouse, Ciciline meet with climate lab

    28 Nov 2018 - Edwards quoted in New York Times story on Brazil backing out of hosting UN summit on climate change

    11 Oct 2018 - Brookings Institute Climate reality requires starting at home: Weaning from fossil fuels

    23 Sep 2018 - Edwards quoted in Financial Times on Argentina energy future

    13 Jul 2018 - Europe and Latin America can blaze a trail on implementing the Paris Agreement
    ​
    1 Jun 2018 - Brookings Institute One year since Trump's withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement

    21 May 2018 - Edwards article in World Politics Review: Is the G-20 Heading for a Showdown With Trump on Climate Change?

    11 May 2018 - Edwards Op-Ed in Washington Post 

    22 Jan 2018 - Roberts Op-Ed The climate solution no-one in Davos will be talking about

    ​15 Dec 2017 - Edwards' article on how Regional and domestic politics could sabotage Brazil's bid to host UN climate change talks in 2019 ​
    ​
    8 Nov 2017 - Roberts quoted in Reuters story on financing loss and damage

    9 Oct 2017 - EcoRI article describes Roberts' testimony against the natural gas power plant proposed for construction in Burrillville, Rhode Island

    17 Sep 2017 - BBC Radio 5 featured a live interview with Roberts about Trump's conditions for staying in Paris

    4 Sep 2017 - Roberts comments on the use of his work in a report by Rhode Island Department of Health on the proposed power plant in Burrillville, Rhode Island 

    17 Jul 2017 - Roberts mentioned in NPR's story on the US having a say in UN climate spending
    ​
    15 Jul 2017 - Roberts calls for solid climate policies in RI

    5 Jul 2017 - Roberts demands swifter action on CO2 release

    5 Jul 2017 - Roberts demands RI Governor Raimondo to take climate action

    30 Jun 2017 - Roberts gives advice on owning and using electric cars

    23 Jun 2017 - Roberts comments on how voters are persuaded by the terms 'climate change' and 'global warming'

    20 Jun 2017 - Roberts' involvement in local climate group is helping to fight fossil fuel development

    3 Jun 2017 - WPRO Radio's Steve Klamkin interviews Roberts on the Paris Agreement

    2 Jun 2017 - Roberts comments on US involvement in the Green Climate Fund

    2 Jun 2017 - BBC Radio 5's Faye Rusco interviews Roberts on Trump's withdrawal from Paris

    2 Jun 2017 - Roberts discusses the role of mayors and private sector companies post US pull-out of Paris

    1 Jun 2017 - Roberts gives more details about the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement

    1 Jun 2017 - Roberts organizes emergency protest in RI

    1 Jun 2017 - Roberts comments on the implications of US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement

    1 Jun 20117 - Roberts share his views on the US exit from the Paris Accord

    31 May 2017 - Roberts cited on the far-reaching implications of US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement

    31 May 2017 - RI left vulnerable if US pulls out of Paris Accord, says Roberts

    24 May 2017 - Roberts chimes in on Trump's proposed EPA budget

    30 Apr 2017 - Roberts helps to 'fact check' Trump's first 100 days in office

    25 Apr 2017 - Roberts lobbies for people's march in RI to mark Trump's first 100 days in office

    23 Apr 2017 - Roberts cautions against threats to science at march for science in Rhode Island

    7 Apr 2017 - White House Chronicle's Llewelyn King interviews Roberts on Trump’s executive order and climate policy directions

    10 Mar 2017 - Roberts quoted in Providence Business News about new proposed fossil fuel infrastructure in Rhode Island

    6 Feb 2017 - Devex article on climate finance under the new administration quotes Roberts

    18 Jan 2017 - Roberts featured in NPR Marketplace segment on Obama's $500m donation to the Green Climate Fund

    29 Dec 2016 - Roberts quoted in Common Dreams article about the state of environmental justice in 2016

    19 Nov 2016 - EcoRI profiles Roberts and the new Civic Alliance for a Cooler Rhode Island

    14 Nov 2016 - Roberts featured in Rhode Island Public Radio segment on Trump and the Paris Agreement 

    12 Nov 2016 - Roberts quoted in Climate Home article on Republican plans to defund climate change programs

    10 Nov 2016 - Roberts quote appears in EcoRI article about Trump and the environment 

    9 Nov 2016 - Roberts quoted in InsideClimate News article on COP22 reaction to Trump's election

    9 Nov 2016 - Science Daily discusses new CDL article on paying for loss and damage

    9 Nov 2016 - Roberts quoted in Climate Home article on COP22 reaction to Trump's election

    8 Nov 2016 - Roberts' paper on paying for loss and damage discussed and quoted in Phys.Org

    7 Nov 2016 - Roberts' paper on paying for loss and damage discussed and quoted in Futurity article

    21 Sep 2016 - Roberts quoted in a Breitbart News article about Clinton's support following shift in climate change language

    20 Sep 2016 - Roberts quoted in a Climate Home article on Clinton's language around climate change after Sanders' endorsement

    5 May 2016 – Climate Home quotes Edwards on the announcement that Patricia Espinosa will lead the UNFCCC from this July 

    5 May 2016 - Dialogo Chino quotes Edwards following announcement that Patricia Espinosa will replace Christiana Figueres as head of the UNFCCC

    24 Apr 2016 - Deutsche Welle quotes Edwards on how ratifying Paris Agreement can boost prosperity in Latin America

    23 Mar 2016 – Edwards provides extended quote to Dialogo Chino on Obama’s trip to Cuba and Argentina
     
    25 Dec 2015 -  ConexiónCOP conversó con Guy Edwards sobre el nuevo acuerdo climático y America Latina

    14 Dec 2015 - Rhode Island Public Radio quotes Roberts on how Paris Climate Pact should steer New England toward clean energy

    11 Dec 2015 - Associated Press quotes Romain Weikmans on “Wild West” account on climate finance

    10 Dec 2015 -  Climate Home talks to Roberts about the lack of an independent system on climate finance

    Read more...

    Archives

    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    June 2021
    January 2021
    December 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    April 2012
    December 2011
    February 2009
    December 2008

    Authors

    The pieces featured in the blog are authored by CDL members and a diverse group of partners from around the world. The opinions expressed in these articles are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not reflect those of Brown University. 

    Categories

    All
    Civil Society
    Climate Finance
    Conference
    COP17
    COP19
    COP20
    COP21
    Energy
    Equity
    Latin America
    LDCs
    Legislation
    Loss And Damage
    Mitigation
    Policy Brief
    Publications
    Rhode Island
    Small Island Developing States
    UNFCCC
    United States

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly