Raila tells rich nations to honour climate finance pledge to developing countries

Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga has challenged rich countries to honour the $100 billion-a-year financial pledge they made in 2009 to developing states to mitigate climate change effects.

Odinga, who seeks the African Union Commission (AUC) chairmanship next year, on Thursday noted that access to climate finance remains one of the biggest challenges African countries face in responding to climate change.

“The continent continues to face challenges associated with adverse climate change effects and disasters. In such circumstances, the vulnerable segment of our population bears the brunt of climate change, particularly the poor communities in rural and urban Africa,” he said.

“Whereas climate finance has been here with us, from one conference of the parties to the other, partners are reminded to respect their commitments and provide the 100 billion dollars promised to assist developing countries to cope with the challenge of climate change.”

Odinga spoke while opening the meeting of the African Green Climate Finances National Designated Authorities Network (AFDAN) and Building Climate Resilience of the Urban Poor (BCRUP) in Nairobi.

At the 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Copenhagen in 2009, developed countries promised that from 2020, they would transfer $100 billion a year to poorer nations hit by worsening climate change-fuelled disasters.

Rich countries at that time promised that the amount would be delivered by 2020, but that deadline was never met.

On Thursday, Odinga also challenged wealthy countries to play their part and help the countries that contribute the least to greenhouse gas emissions.

“We as a continent still have a challenge with access to some of the climate finance sources such as the Green Climate Fund (GCF), Global Environment Facility (GEF), Least Development Countries Fund (LDCF), Adaptation Fund (AF), Climate Investment Funds (CIF) as well as bilateral and multilateral development partners,” the former PM said.

“These are all well-established avenues for accessing climate finance but currently, Africa can only access 4 per cent way below impactful finance.”

A November 2023 report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) showed that the $100 billion-a-year target was eventually met in 2022.

However, the OECD has previously raised concerns about this funding failing to mobilise substantial private capital needed to cover the climate investment gap.

Most of the funding has been public finance, of which a large chunk is loans.

Kenya itself experienced deadly floods during this year’s March-May long-rains season, leaving an estimated 291 people killed and 278,380 others displaced, according to the National Disaster Operations Centre (NDOC).

A World Bank report last year warned that Kenya could lose up to 7.25 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2050 if it fails to take strong action to adapt to climate change and mitigate its effects.