TheCable

President Bola Tinubu has asked developed countries to urgently provide $1 trillion climate finance to fulfil their promise of $100 billion to developing nations to upscale climate change adaptation.

Tinubu spoke at the 19th summit of heads of state and government of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Kampala, Uganda.

Speaking on addressing climate change, the president said developing countries are moving forward on the issue with courage and ambition.

He, however, said finance and technologies are critical tools to manage climate change.

Tinubu was represented by Atiku Bagudu, minister of budget and economic planning at the summit, according to a statement by Folasade Boriowo, director of information of the ministry on Saturday.

“Developing countries have striven in the last two decades under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process to make common but differentiated responsibilities a basic principle of global climate action,” the president said.

“To move forward decisively, access to affordable climate finance and technologies is critical.

Tinubu urged NAM to work in collaboration with the United Nations to “stress the need for the developed countries to provide climate finance of $1 trillion at the earliest to fulfil their promise of $100 billion annual commitment to climate finance to developing countries”.

At COP15 in Copenhagen in 2009, developed countries decided to commit to a goal of jointly mobilising $100 billion a year by 2020 to address the needs of developing countries.

The commitment was formalised at COP16 in Cancun and COP21 in Paris, it was reiterated and extended to 2025.

EQUITABLE ACCESS TO CAPITAL, DEBT FINANCING NOT SUSTAINABLE

Speaking further on financing, he also called for equitable access to capital for developing countries.

According to Tinubu, such provision will provide the much-needed resources for development, thus solving some of the most pressing challenges in the world today.

He said the developing world “is not looking for sympathy or begging, but fair and equal opportunity”.

The politician said the combined population of the 120 countries that make up the NAM is over 4.4 billion or about 55 percent of the world’s population, yet the total financial resources available to all these countries are much less than that of some countries.

“The total budgetary resources for the 120 countries is less than $3.5 trillion, which is less than the budget of the United States alone. Whereas the aggregate public debt of less than $6.6 trillion, mostly at higher interest rates and shorter tenor, is about one-sixth of one or a few developed countries,” Tinubu said.

These, he said, are clear evidence that non-aligned countries suffer from a lack of access to capital and resources for development.

“More often than not, public debt available to developing countries is far more expensive and not substantial enough to make an impact,” he added.

“Therefore, we wish to advocate a financing mechanism and equitable capital market access that can provide adequate financial resources to the Global South.”

Currently chaired by Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, the NAM is a forum of over 100 countries that are not formally aligned with nor against any major power bloc.