All countries must use the COP20 Summit in Lima to resolve the impasse over "climate finance," and make success possible at the critical Paris talks in December 2015, says international agency Oxfam.

In a new report, "Breaking the Standoff", Oxfam details how current pledges are out of step with the magnitude of need in developing countries and calls on world leaders to outline a robust new strategy to boost climate finance. Developed countries promised to mobilize 100 billion U.S. dollars per year in climate finance by 2020, but headway in mobilizing that funding has been slow.

If progress is made on climate finance, the clean development that poor countries can achieve could be spectacular. Ethiopia could lift millions of people out of poverty while avoiding annual carbon emissions to the equivalent of 65 coal-fired plants. Peru could increase its GDP by nearly 1 percent more than business as usual while halving its emissions at the same time. Indonesia could fulfill its plan to cut emissions by 41 percent in 15 years.

Adaptation and the $100 billion commitment

However, the 100 billion U.S. dollars climate promise can only be the start. Sub-Saharan African countries alone, for example, will need $62 billion per year to invest in climate adaptation. An effective climate policy regime will also unlock hundreds of billions more in private investments and move the world onto a low-carbon path that keeps warming below 2°C.

A key reason for the gap between current climate investments and climate needs is that donor countries have managed to avoid accountability for their fair shares. Too few details have been agreed by negotiators about how financial flows will be mobilized, which countries will mobilize them and which countries will receive them.This has undermined developing countries’ ability to create effective plans for their adaptation and mitigation needs.

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)