Current Affair 1:

The New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance (NCQG) is a new global climate finance goal that the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA) shall set from a floor of USD 100 billion per year, prior to 2025.

Who should pay up for climate action? There is dispute between developed and developing countries.

The expansion of the contributor base for the new goal was deadlocked. Simply put, parties from the Global North, including the United States, the European Union and Australia, are calling for an increase in the contributor base to the new finance goal in order to “reflect new economic realities.”

Developing countries argue that this debate is irrelevant because the NCQG is intended to facilitate the transfer of climate finance from developed to developing countries. This is a fundamental schism that is likely to escalate.

The UNFCCC (or the Convention) and the Paris Agreement do not include a legal definition of ’developed’ and ’developing’ countries. The interpretation of the terms within these contexts has primarily been based on the grouping into ’Annex II’ and ’Non-Annex I’ Parties, set in 1992 at the time of the adoption of the Convention.

The former are the developed countries that must provide financial assistance to developing countries under the Convention. Several of these Annex II nations are currently arguing that this categorisation is outdated in the NCQG context.

 

<< Previous Next >>