BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 17. There is an urgent need for a dramatic increase in climate finance, said Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change, Trend reports.
He spoke at a virtual event hosted by the Brookings Institution ahead of the highly anticipated COP29 Climate Conference in Baku.
While acknowledging progress made in recent years, Stiell emphasized that current efforts fall far short of what is required to address the escalating climate crisis.
"In the past decade, we’ve seen some real progress," he noted. "Last year, over a trillion dollars was invested globally in climate action - an impressive rise from just a few hundred billion a decade ago. Additionally, according to the OECD, developed countries provided and mobilized more than $100 billion in climate finance to developing nations in 2022".
Despite these advancements, the executive secretary warned that the world remains dangerously underfunded in its fight against climate change. "Relative to where we need to be, this is nowhere near enough," he said, pointing to the staggering costs of climate-related damages. "This year alone, we've witnessed hundreds of billions of dollars in damage, affecting both wealthy and poorer countries alike".
Stiell also raised concerns over a widening gap between those who can afford to transition to clean energy and those left behind. "We simply can’t afford a world of clean energy haves and have-nots. In a two-speed global transition, pretty soon everyone loses," he cautioned.
With COP29 on the horizon, the UN climate chief called for trillions of dollars in additional climate finance, emphasizing that it is an investment not just in environmental protection but in the future of the global economy. "We can only prevent the climate crisis from decimating all economies if every nation has the means to slash greenhouse gas emissions and boost climate resilience. The cost of inaction will far outweigh the investments we need to make now," Stiell concluded.