New Collective Quantified Goal

Why in news?

• Negotiations on the New Collective Quantified Goal for climate finance continue this week in Bonn Climate Change Conference, 2023.
• This goal will replace the climate finance commitment set in 2009, which aimed to mobilize USD 100 billion per year for developing countries by 2020.
• The USD 100 billion commitment, which in any case has not been met, will expire in 2025.

About New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG):

• A commitment of ‘USD 100 billion per year till 2020’ to developing nations from developed countries was a target set at the Conference of Parties (COP) in 2009.
• But estimates since then show addressing climate change may cost billions and even trillions of dollars.
• Therefore, the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement agreed on setting a New Collective Quantified Goal (NCGQ) for climate financing prior to 2025 — a reference point which accounts for the needs and priorities of developing nations.
• The NCGQ thus pulls up the ceiling on commitment from developed countries. It is expected to be finalized by 2024.
• It will replace the current climate finance goal of USD 100 billion annually from developed countries.

What is the need for a new climate finance goal?

• As per the OECD report, out of the promised USD 100 billion per year, developed countries provided USD 83.3 billion in 2020.
• According to Oxfam, these figures may be misleading and inflated by as much as 225% as there is too much dishonest and shady reporting.
• Moreover, the USD 100 billion target set in 2009 was seen more as a political goal, since there was no effort to clarify the definition or source of ‘climate finance’.
• The economic growth of developed countries has come at the cost of high carbon emissions, and thus they are obligated to shoulder greater responsibility.
• Moreover, while the funds available for climate finance have quantitatively increased, they are inaccessible, privately sourced, delayed and not reaching countries in need.
• A recent study by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) found roughly 5% of climate finance comes from grants; the rest through loans and equity which burden developing countries with a debilitating debt crisis.
• Countries most in need of finances have to wait years to access money and pay interest at high rates, thus increasing their debt burden.

PRACTICE QUESTION:

‘New Collective Quantified Goal’, sometimes seen in news, is associated with:

(a) Forest Conservation

(b) Wildlife Protection

(c) Coastal Protection

(d) Climate Finance

Answer