China needs to cough up more to aid nations afflicted by climate change

Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt — The list of countries that pay towards helping poorer countries cope with climate change should be updated, Germany’s climate envoy said on Friday, indicating that countries such as China should be included to reflect their economic growth.

In 2009, developed countries promised that by 2020 they would transfer $100bn per year to vulnerable states hit by increasingly severe climate-linked effects and disasters. That goal is expected to be reached in 2023, three years late.

Even before they have achieved that goal, countries are discussing how the next target will be set for climate finance after 2025. Who pays into it is under discussion at COP27, the annual UN climate change summit currently being held in Egypt.

The list of contributors is currently based on a 1992 framework that classes China, the world's second-largest economy, as a developing country.

“I think it’s very clear that we are now in 2022,” Jennifer Morgan said, in response to a question about whether China should in future also be one of the countries that contributes. Morgan did not make specific reference to China.

“The world has fundamentally changed. And so we would expect that the convention and the rules here and who pays would also adjust to the fact that there is thankfully ... much more wealth in a number of emerging economies,” she said, speaking at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh.

China and other emerging economies maintain that wealthy nations developed using carbon-intensive industries over centuries that led to the climate crisis.

Analysts expect China to beat its target to reach peak emissions before 2030 after which emissions will start to drop. Beijing has so far resisted pressure to formally pull forward that date.

Beijing contributes some climate finance and said this week it would be willing to support a mechanism for compensating poorer countries for losses and damage caused by climate change, but said that would not involve contributing cash.

“Obviously, that is all part of the negotiations, but we would expect there to be a broader donor base moving forward based on the economic strength that now is coming from a number of countries around the world,” Morgan said.

EU officials have also suggested that China should be providing more climate finance, and said its “developing country” status could not be used as an excuse not to step up its emissions-cutting commitments.

“If you’re responsible for almost 30% of emissions, you cannot say, 'But I’m a developing country, so don’t look at me',” EU climate policy chief Frans Timmermans told a September meeting in Rotterdam on climate adaptation in Africa.

Reuters