Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) President Daniel Best has heard a lot of talk about the region getting more climate financing but is yet to see this become reality in the way that it is needed.
He lamented this outcome while saying the CDB was “focused on increasing our climate finance ambition”.
Best was speaking as part of a Brazilhosted panel discussion on COP30, Climate Resilience, Green Finance, and ESG, which took place last week when the bank held its 55th annual meeting in Brasilia.
With Brazil hosting the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 30) in November, the CDB boss said they would be “be advocating for operationalising the global goal on adaptation and improving small island developing states access to concessional climate financing, particularly through capitalisation of the Fund For Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD).
There is also a plan to push for “increased access to affordable climate financing for adaptation”.
Best advanced these causes while stressing that “we are among the most vulnerable locations in the world, so climate change and the impact of climate change for us is not academic”.
With the Caribbean contributing an estimated one per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, but at risk of major fallout, including hurricanes that were large in size and number, Best said regarding COP 30 that “really what we want is for everybody to just do what they said they would do. We want the larger countries to play their part”.
‘More funds’
There are plans to push plans for a US$125 billionTropical Forests Forever Facility fund at COP 30, but the CDB president argued that “what we don’t need is more funds”.
“It is established that we need US$1.3 trillion, right now the target is around US$300 billion, and that is far from being capitalised,” he said.
“It is intensely challenging to access resources from funds that have been established and for which there are entire mechanisms to deliver resources. So now we have set up the FRLD, which is a very much needed fund, and one we have been advocating for four decades.
“Now we have it, so now we have to capitalise it and it is an absolute slog to get that capitalised. So what are we going to do, while we still can’t get funds from Green Climate Fund in a timely manner,
[and] struggling to capitalise FRLD?”
He added: “We can’t get resources in these places. So the solution is to set up something else so we can’t get resources there too? These are things that just don’t make basic sense. So we need to capitalise the funds.”
Best said the Caribbean needed to access funding for climate adaptation “so we will be advocating for increased access to affordable climate financing for adaptation”.
“Affordable grant resources are needed, our countries have borne the brunt of the climate crisis for too long. We are grappling with crises that we did not create, and we are asked to operate within systems not designed with us in mind. And so at COP 30, we will be letting our voices be heard again as far as possible,” he said.
“People ask me, why would you keep going back to COP? Because clearly they are not listening to you. Clearly, they are not listening to us, we are becoming more and more invisible. And my response to that is, . . . not going and not raising our voices is not a solution.”
He continued: “We need multilateral climate finance mechanisms to work for us fast. I would have spoken to the GCF, but there needs to be greater harmony among multilateral funds, and we need to create the enabling environment for the private sector to come into this space.
“The private sector, they have resources, and the private sector has a track record of success in actually delivering on projects. So we need them to also come into this space and play a major role in developing solutions and delivering solutions to the people of the region.”
He said CDB would continue to do its part to “bring concessional resources into the region”.
“There are people in all of our countries that are absolutely counting on us to deliver. There are people that are counting on COP 30 to deliver. It is not a holiday that we are going for, it’s not just another conversation,” Best noted.
“I think we can all agree that COP needs a rebirth, because what we have done thus far will not serve us into the future. We need a new look at how we deliver climate solutions to the people of this planet.” (SC)
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