YESTERDAY, the UK announced a contribution of
about £720m to the Green Climate Fund, a UN initiative designed to help
poor countries cope with climate change. It is right for rich countries
to assist the developing world in their efforts to adapt to climate
impacts, but they should not burden them with costly decarbonisation
schemes.
Past international climate finance
programmes, however, suggest that a pragmatic approach is unlikely.
Instead of focusing aid on schemes that increase the resilience of poor
countries to the recurrent impacts of the climate (adaptation measures),
the rich world is guilty of a vast misallocation of resources towards
costly renewable energy programmes, with disastrous consequences for the
world’s poorest. .................This emphasis on decarbonisation over adaptation is damaging, diverting
vital resources away from measures that can lift people out of poverty
and save lives. It also ignores the overriding need to help poor
countries become more resilient to climate impacts, whether these are
exacerbated by global warming in the future or not."
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