The U.N. body charged with making the Paris climate deal work scolded the global community Sunday for not making good on promises of financial aid.
The call to “pay up” came as President-elect Joe Biden readies to drag the U.S. back into the Paris climate agreement U.S. President Donald Trump exited in 2019, as Breitbart News reported.
AFP reports the U.N. Environment Programme Adaptation Gap (UNEP) said current finance levels of around $30 billion annually for adaptation were far adrift of the $70 billion promised and the time has come for more money to be sent.
UNEP said the true cost of adapting to climate impacts in nations it said are at risk could be as high as $300 billion every year by the end of the decade and $500 billion by mid-century.
“The hard truth is that climate change is upon us,” said Inger Andersen, UNEP executive director, echoing a familiar cry that has circled the globe for the past decade at least.
“Its impacts will intensify and hit vulnerable countries and communities the hardest — even if we meet the Paris Agreement goals of holding global warming this century to well below 2C.”
UNEP called for a drastic scale-up of public and private finance for adaptation projects, claiming “climate-linked disasters” mostly impact developing nations, and despite promises to help out financially, richer countries still aren’t hitting their funding targets.
UNEP said funding for adaptation currently represented just five percent of all climate finance.
This is not the first time the U.N. has cried out for a climate funding boost.
As Breitbart News reported, the U.S. was singled out in 2019 by the globalist body and told it cannot avoid compensating poorer nations hit by climate change.
The financial impositions considered at the time included U.N.-administered taxes on financial transactions, international air travel and fossil fuels amongst others.
Upon taking office, president-elect Joe Biden has already said he will rejoin the Paris Climate Accord as well as restore funding for the World Health Organization during his first 100 days.