Action Aid Reaction to New OECD Report on Climate Finance
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Reporting on climate change

Reporting on climate change

Image by Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security


The primary objective of climate finance is to benefit developing countries and support their climate action. Yet the large majority of the OECD's $60 billion estimate are in the form of export credits, the full value of both concessional and market-rate loans, and private investment. The ultimate beneficiaries of these forms of finance are actors in rich countries - not developing countries, much less poor and vulnerable communities.

ActionAid Senior Policy Analyst Brandon Wu, a climate finance expert and the developed country NGO representative to the Board of the Green Climate Fund, said:

"The claims made in the OECD report are misleading. Counting export credits, the full value of loans, and private investments as climate finance does not serve the needs of people affected by climate change. It only serves the needs of rich country governments that are failing to meet their obligations.

"If we really care about climate change and the devastating impacts it's having on the world's poorest and most vulnerable people, we need to make sure climate finance gets to the people who need it most. The amounts committed to date fall far short of what's needed, and accounting tricks won't change that.

"We welcome that OECD governments are saying they still intend to reach the $100 billion goal. But dodgy accounting to make rich countries look good won't help prevent disaster for poor countries and their people."

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Notes

1. The OECD report acknowledges that only 16 percent of its own $60 billion figure went to adaptation finance, illustrating a further gap in support for the poorest and most vulnerable as they struggle to cope with increasingly severe climate impacts.

For interviews or for more information on climate finance, please contact Brandon Wu of ActionAid on +1 202-370-9927 (Direct) or +1 202-906-0378 (Mobile) or Brandon.Wu@actionaid.org
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Oxfam statement:

Poorest communities continue to lose out from climate funds, says Oxfam

There has been an increase in international climate finance in the fight against climate change, according to a new OECD report, which Oxfam is encouraged by. The efforts of the French and Peruvian governments to build consensus on hitting the $100 billion goal is also welcome news.

However, Oxfam says the report reveals that support for climate adaptation in poor countries continues to receive only a very small share - just 16 percent - of the overall investment flows. Oxfam estimates that around $1-2 billion per year in grant-based public funds are directly targeted at adaptation in developing countries.

Oxfam International's climate change policy expert, Isabel Kreisler, said: "The clear message from this OECD report is that the poorest countries and communities are still being short-changed in climate finance.

“If finance ministers want to ensure there is something in the Paris deal for those on the frontline of climate change, they must significantly increase public funding for adaptation before 2020, and ensure a new and separate financing target looking past 2020 is also agreed on in Paris."

 

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