Latest news with #climatefinance
South China Morning Post
5 days ago
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Brics approves climate finance framework, crafting a joint position for the first time
The Brics economic bloc approved its first joint climate finance framework on Thursday, the group's most coordinated effort to date on funding climate action and setting the stage for a shared position – a first for the group – ahead of Cop30 in Brazil. The nonbinding framework – agreed during a high-level meeting on climate change and sustainable development – outlines Brics priorities including the reform of multilateral development banks, the scaling up of concessional finance and the mobilising of private capital to support climate efforts in the Global South. The document will be submitted to Brics heads of state at their July meeting. Cop30, the 30th session of the Conference of the Parties, the latest United Nations climate change summit, is scheduled for November in Belem, Brazil. 'For the first time, there will be a document that guides a common and collective Brics action in the area of climate finance – involving, for example, reforms of multilateral banks, more concessional finance, and also the mobilisation of private capital and regulatory matters to ensure that flows can reach developing countries,' said Tatiana Rosito, the international affairs secretary at Brazil's finance ministry. In a statement, the Brazilian presidency said that the bloc's latest climate effort reflected a shift from defensive posturing to proactive coordination in international negotiations. Although this marks Brics' first formal initiative as a negotiations bloc on climate finance, its core members – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – have coordinated informally for years.
Arab News
5 days ago
- Business
- Arab News
Pakistan eyes carbon market partnership with ADB to advance climate goals
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Climate Change Minister Dr. Musadik Malik on Thursday met with a high-level Asian Development Bank (ADB) delegation to explore potential collaboration on carbon markets as part of the country's evolving climate strategy, said in an official statement. The visiting team was led by Toru Kubo, ADB's Senior Director for Climate Change and Sustainable Development. The discussions focused on leveraging carbon markets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and attract new streams of climate finance for sustainable development. Carbon markets are trading systems that allow countries, companies or organizations to buy and sell carbon credits or permits representing the right to emit a specific amount of carbon dioxide. These markets create financial incentives for reducing emissions and investing in greener alternatives. 'Both sides agreed to formulate a comprehensive, mutually aligned climate change strategy, with a specific focus on carbon credit mobilization, climate innovation and outcomes-based project implementation,' the climate change ministry said in a statement. The two sides also explored ways for Pakistan to strategically align its carbon finance agenda with the Sustainable Development Goals, aiming to turn climate action into a driver of economic growth, it added. On the occasion, Malik assured the ADB of full support in the strategy formulation, emphasizing that it should remain 'impact-driven, transparent and results-oriented.' Kubo highlighted ADB's support for developing member countries, including Pakistan, by enhancing their carbon finance capabilities through mobilizing investments in low-carbon technologies, enabling them to access and benefit from global carbon markets. The ministry said the meeting showed that climate action is now seen as a way to boost the economy, not just an environmental measure, with more countries paying attention to carbon markets. Pakistan unveiled the country's first National Carbon Market Policy in November 2024, saying that the government wanted to attract investments in green initiatives and transition toward a low-carbon economy. According to the Global Climate Risk Index, Pakistan is ranked as the fifth most vulnerable country to climate change. In 2022, devastating floods claimed about 1,700 lives and affected more than 33 million people, causing economic losses exceeding $30 billion. Although international donors pledged over $9 billion to support Pakistan's flood recovery, officials report that only a small portion of the promised funds were received by the country.
RNZ News
23-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Budget 2025: NZ branded 'a fair-weather friend' after climate and aid funding cuts
Photo: RNZ New Zealand's climate financing commitments will decrease from $250 million to $100 million this year, Budget 2025 revealed. At the same time, an injection of $100 million a year into Aotearoa's aid to overseas nations has not stemmed a downward trajectory in aid levels through to 2027. A spokesperson for Foreign Minister Winston Peters told RNZ that they will push for more overseas development assistance (ODA) funding next year. "Unfortunately, the previous Labour Government left a $200 million a year fiscal cliff in the ODA budget from January 2026. "As Minister Willis acknowledged in her speech, we argued for more ODA funding than was secured - and will seek more in the next budget cycle. "But the ODA gap left by the previous Labour Government will take more than one budget to fill." Peters' office could not confirm whether this would result in less funding for Pacific nations, both from aid and climate finance. "New Zealand is committed to doing its bit to help the Pacific meet its development needs, including building climate resilience." Labour Party associate foreign affairs spokesperson Phil Twyford called that nonsense. "Governments don't budget in perpetuity for these things. Our Labour government made a four year commitment, and it's up to this government to budget to continue that." "They've overseen a cut of 50% in climate finance, and that's not only letting down our partners in the Pacific, it's also welching on the commitments that we made internationally." A spokesperson for MFAT told RNZ in a statement that future climate finance beyond 2025 will be determined before the end of the year. Photo: RNZ Pacific New Zealand prioritises its Pacific neighbors, providing at least 60 percent of its development funding to the region, according to MFAT. "The Pacific remains the highest priority for the IDC programme, with more than 60 percent allocated to the region. The new $100m a year funding is deliberately focused on the Pacific." "It will allow us to sustain our funding commitment to the Pacific and support their priorities, including resilience to the impacts of climate change." World Vision National Director Grant Bayldon wants the government to be clear on how overall Pacific-targetted aid will change in the years to come. "This is very likely to impact Pacific communities when there's a cut of that size.. it's hard to see it not impacting the Pacific directly." The United Nations has a longstanding target for developed nations to match their ODA to around 0.7 percent of their gross national income. Aotearoa's proportion is set to slip from 0.33 percent in 2023/24 fiscal year to 0.25 percent in 2025/26, to 0.23 percent in 2026/27. That will put aid levels at its lowest proportion since 2016. Based on the OECD's current rankings , it would put New Zealand in the bottom third, just above the United States after the shuttering of their USAID programme. In terms of climate finance, which sits separate from aid, New Zealand has commited to tripling its contribution to around $558 million annually by 2030, according to Oxfam Aotearoa . Oxfam climate justice lead Nick Henry said that Aotearoa now looks set to break it's promise. "We weren't expecting to get it all this year, but we were hoping to see it head in the right direction." "It's going to mean that any new initiatives to support communities with their climate needs are going to be competing with other humanitarian needs, other development needs that are still there in a time of climate crisis." In 2021, the then-Labour government introduced a climate finance package of $1.3 billion between 2022 and 2025. Strategically, at least 50 percent of it was supposed to be dedicated to the Pacific, mostly dedicated to infrastructure and disaster risk planning for climate mitigation. That funding is due to expire next year, but the current government has not reintroduced a new funding package for 2026 onwards. It means that MFAT will have to rely on the remnants of that funding, or $100 million, a $150 million reduction from 2024. Dr Terence Wood, an aid expert out of Australia National University calls this a "fiscal cliff". "More makes it sound like the budget is going up, but all they going to do is prevent the budget from falling as rapidly as it had seemed like it was going to." With the passage of Labour's Zero Carbon Act, the government began to include climate considerations within policy planning and action. This practice, called "climate mainstreaming", has also been applied to aid, where development projects are considered for their direct and indirect impact on emissions reduction or climate adaptation. (MFAT statement) Dr Wood said it is a good idea being used in a bad way when it comes to international development. "For example - they might no longer build schools by the beach, they might move them inland a little bit, or they might strengthen the construction of buildings to take into account increased cyclone frequency." But Dr Wood said that this practice currently allows a project funded by aid could be classified as climate finance if they have some kind of indirect effect, rather than a full focus, on the climate. In doing so, projects that have little to do with cliamte change can be recorded as evidence of action against benchmarked commitments. As a result, they can justify spending less. "New Zealand is desperately trying to make it seem as if the amount of aid that it gives to help countries adapt to climate change is not falling, even though the amount of aid that it is giving to help countries adapt to climate change is actually falling." "I think it's probably one of the reasons why many Pacific politicians view us as something as a fair-weather friend." Bayldon said that World Vision also shares this concern. "I think it's important for for all funders, all governments, to really be up for. And honest about that, how much of the funding is going to climate projects and resist effectively claiming things as climate projects that aren't." An MFAT spokesperson told RNZ that climate outcomes are always considered strongly, and are not undermined. "This includes considering factors such as the climate benefits of the activity, any impacts that climate change could have on achieving outcomes, how the activity itself might negatively impact climate change, and identifying any opportunities to improve resilience and incorporate these into design." "Mainstreaming climate considerations in this way is good development practice."
RNZ News
22-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Budget backsliding on climate change 'defies belief', say advocates
Resources Minister Shane Jones said the crown would take 10-15 percent investment in new gasfields. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone The Budget sets aside $200 million to invest in fossil fuel development at gasfields, reduces climate finance to the Pacific, and reduces funds for government agencies working on energy savings and climate change. It also scraps $56 million specifically for electric buses. Climate groups said it defied belief that the government wasn't helping businesses and households save money by saving power and switching to clean energy, instead handing subsidies to fossil fuel companies. Last year, RNZ reported the oil and gas lobby had asked the government to underwrite the risk of fossil fuel exploration . Resources Minister Shane Jones has now revealed the outcome - a contingency fund of $200 million over four years for co-investment in new gasfields. Jones said the structure of investments was still being worked through, "but this signals a willingness, subject to cabinet consideration, for the crown to take a commercial stake of up to 10-15 percent in new gasfield developments that feed the domestic market to address sovereign risk". "Natural gas will continue to be critical in delivering secure and affordable energy for New Zealanders for at least the next 20 years," he said. "We are already feeling the pain of constrained supply. "To get through winter, we must be prepared to stand alongside our petroleum sector as a co-investor." The Budget also halved future climate finance, mostly targeted towards the Pacific. In 2021, the then-government committed $800 million over four years - $200 million a year - in international development funding to deliver on New Zealand's climate finance target under the Paris Agreement. From this year on, Budget 2025 replaces this with $100 million a year to be focussed on the Pacific. The funding will no longer be exclusively focused on climate finance, despite New Zealand joining other countries in signing up to a new ambitious climate finance goal last year, helping developing nations move away from using fossil fuels. The Budget also confirmed the scrapping of a targeted fund for decarbonising public transport, saving $56 million over four years. Transport authorities - including Auckland's - had waited for new applications to open, after the funding was reconfirmed for four years in last year's Budget, but details were never announced. Asked about this in May, the Ministry of Transport refused to confirm that the fund had been scrapped, saying any announcements had to wait for the Budget. The government said councils can still apply in certain circumstances, through the National Land Transport Fund. The electric bus fund was one of the few transport decarbonisation initiatives or policies that had survived a cull that scrapped EV subsidies, weakened future tailpipe emissions standards and pivoted to pushing more funding towards roads, away from cycling. The government also cut $56 million over four years from the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA), a body aimed at helping households and businesses save energy and cut emissions. The government had previously intervened to appoint an oil and gas lobbyist to the EECA board, after he had[ spoken out about the body's clean energy subsidies]. That lobbyist - John Carnegie of Energy Resources Aotearoa - fronted the fossil fuel industry's successful push for the government to underwrite new oil and gasfields. The reaction to the Budget from climate-focussed groups was swift. "This is far from a Budget that will set Aotearoa New Zealand up to become a thriving low-emissions economy," said Lawyers for Climate Action NZ. executive director Jessica Palairet. "This is a lost opportunity for New Zealand. "As many of our international peers move away from fossil fuels, we're doing the opposite." The Green Building Council said cutting funding for energy-saving champion EECA by more than $14 million a year was at odds with the government's own global commitments to work towards doubling energy efficiency and tripling renewable electricity. "Rather than investing in solutions, this budget aims to subsidise new gasfields at a time when nations around the globe are transitioning away from it," said council chief executive Andrew Eagles. "As Kiwis face sharply rising energy bills, businesses shut down or scale back production due to the energy crisis, and our nation entertains the thought of periods without power in the depths of winter, it defies belief that Budget 2025 fails to deliver adequate investment or action. "Our neighbours in Australia are even banning new household gas connections and supporting alternative heating solutions, yet our government is actively trying to continue our reliance on fossil fuels." The group said there was no support for businesses or households to decarbonise, or address the gap in emissions savings left by shaky plans for carbon capture and storage . Campaign group 350 Aotearoa said not one of the government's 33 Budget media releases mentioned climate change and the phrase was also absent from the summary of the Budget's main points. "This government has once again demonstrated that they do not understand that climate action isn't charity, it's basic infrastructure that saves lives, cleans our air and creates jobs that can be relied on for decades to come," said co-director Alva Feldmeier. "Today, the government has done even worse than deny or delay climate action - they've actively chosen to pour gas on the fire," says Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. "The government is setting $200 million of our public money on fire to support fossil fuel executives' profit, handing a lifeline to a sunset industry, instead of investing in real, resilient, renewable energy," she said. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Japan Times
22-05-2025
- Business
- Japan Times
Sumitomo Mitsui among banks stepping up deals for blended finance
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking (SMBC) and Citigroup are among banks targeting new deals in the market for blended finance, defying a number of headwinds, including a significant decline in government spending on development aid. Deals blending public and private funds totaled $18 billion last year, down 21% from 2023, according to Convergence, a global network of more than 190 institutions and a data provider for blended finance. Over the past three years, banks doing the most blended-finance transactions include SMBC, Citigroup, BNP Paribas and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, it said in a report released Wednesday. The deals tend to target environmental and social goals, and rely on public de-risking tools such as guarantees to attract private capital. With climate-focused transactions making up more than 60% of total financing last year, blended finance has been touted as key to raising the $300 billion in annual contributions pledged by countries at the COP29 climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, last year. Jeanne Soh, head of structured finance in Asia at SMBC, said she's seen rising interest in blended finance during the past few years. The bank has been working with various development-finance institutions and does around seven to eight deals a year, she said. SMBC is seeking to grow blended finance-related revenue by about 10% year-on-year, Soh said. "This is going to be a growth sector for us, and a key focus for the bank.' Citigroup, meanwhile, is looking into a type of blended-finance instrument that would allow sovereign issuers in emerging markets to refinance their debt and put savings toward developmental goals such as food security and education, said Stephanie von Friedeburg, a New York-based managing director in the bank's public-sector group. The market for these so-called debt-for-development swaps "is really starting to grow,' she said. At the same time, the market for blended finance faces a shortage of funds as richer nations, including the Netherlands and Germany, cut back on developmental aid. In the United States, President Donald Trump has taken a sledgehammer to USAID, which had been one of blended finance's most active investors. As a result, the market now finds itself "on a precipice,' Convergence CEO Joan Larrea said in an interview. Larrea also pointed to other problems that are hampering growth. Blended finance is "plagued by major issues,' she said. That includes a lack of strategy among donors to target private-sector funding, a failure to share data and insufficient standardized structures, which make it harder to scale and replicate transactions, she said.
