THE Minister of Environment, Forestry and Tourism, Pohamba Shifeta, called for honest engagement with the developed world on climate financing commitments as outlined in the Paris Agreement.
“There is no need to beg, but we are simply asking the developed world to honour its commitments under the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement. These are the only international instruments that keep us together for the common purpose of realising a greener future,” Shifeta said.
He made these remarks at the sixth high-level ministerial dialogue on climate finance, part of the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The event is taking place in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 11 to 22 November 2024.
Shifeta emphasised that climate finance must be delivered on a polluter-pay principle, considering historical responsibilities for emissions.
“As developing countries, we have been consistently unequivocal and factual: climate finance must be delivered on a polluter-pay principle, taking into account historical responsibilities for emissions. We maintain a narrative that there should be allocative balance in climate finance between mitigation and adaptation. And that, significant financial resources shall be grants as opposed to concessional climate finance,” Shifeta said.
He stressed that the annual US$100 billion target is only 0.1% of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which he emphasised is a small amount to compensate for the damage caused by the developed world.
“We cannot keep repeating our call for a flow of US$100 billion per annum as the New Collective Quantified Goal. This is abnormal. The developed world must be honest about this process. I unreservedly agree with some of the previous speakers here calling for climate finance; US$100 billion per annum is just 0.1% of global GDP—very little to save the planet Earth indeed,” he said.