Climate pledge yet to be fulfilled

HIGH-INCOME countries that cause climate change, have not upheld their end of the bargain to repay debts to those most affected, a report has found.
High-income countries like the United States, Australia, and Japan had pledged US$100 billion (about K352 billion) to climate change in low-income countries, but this pledge has yet to be fulfilled, as only US$83 billion (K292 billion) was collected in 2020.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated that each Pacific Island country needed US$1 billion (about K3.52 billion) per year for climate change adaption infrastructure.
The reality had been that existing commitments had fallen short of what was actually needed.
Authored by Fyfe Strachan, Zhi Yan and Lucia Gamarra, published by Caritas Oceania and the Jubilee Australia Research Centre this month, the report pointed out that the Pacific region currently found itself facing two clouds on the horizon, as the report was aptly named; the climate crisis and the risk of a debt crisis.
Climate financing, as the authors referred to, was when low income countries like Papua New Guinea (PNG) received assistance in the form of loans or grants from high-income countries to combat mitigation and adaption needs brought by climate change.
The report highlighted the need to reform the current international debt structure because additional climate financing will only offer a temporary solution.
There was also the claim by Oxfam who believed that contributors of climate financing tended to overstate their commitments.
Oxfam said by reporting non-concessional loans as climate finance or reporting the full face value of loans and financing projects not focused on climate change.
The report said in 2015, Japan loaned US$229 million (about K806 million) to PNG for Lae’s Nadzab Airport redevelopment project, while China provided a loan of US$920 million (about K3.23 billion) for the Ramu Two hydropower project in PNG.
Both examples of how these projects that supposed to mitigate climate change added to rising debt.
The report said Australia, which had been providing the Pacific with climate financing grants, might switch their approach to climate financing.
China committed loans in the Pacific worth US$6 billion (about K21 billion) from 2015 to 2020.