The Rich World Must Keep Its Word on Climate Aid
Developed-country governments promised to give poorer nations $100 billion a year to help them grapple with global warming. They haven’t delivered.
Good question.
Photographer: Pedro Ugarte/AFP/Getty Images
The COP26 climate summit in Glasgow has made real progress — announcing new and unexpected net-zero pledges, a commitment to reduce methane emissions, and moves to squeeze fossil-fuel funding and end deforestation. But in other ways it has been disappointing. One failure in particular stands out. Rich-country governments came to the conference knowing they’d broken a crucial promise they made more than a decade ago. The summit has yet to set this right.
The world’s wealthiest nations said that by 2020 they’d mobilize $100 billion a year in public and private finance to help emerging economies fight climate change. They haven’t delivered.