Essay by Eric Worrall
Like rich nations have nothing better to do than discuss than giving big climate handouts to poor nations which have a shameful corruption index score.
For Cop29 to succeed, rich nations must get their parliaments to agree more finance now
Published on 30/01/2024, 2:49pm
Rich nations always say they need their parliaments approval for climate finance at Cops – now is the time to start
By Evans Njewa
Although 2024 has just begun, the coming months will determine if Cop29 will be a success and whether benefits will trickle down to vulnerable communities in developing countries.
The Cop29 summit in Baku in November will focus on climate finance.
Government negotiators in the Global North always tell us that their ambition on finance depends on their parliaments.
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They stress that they have no mandate, or possibility to scale up funds, as parliaments will not approve.
So, as parliamentarian debates about budgets and allocations begin early in the year, they need to act now.
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Without more grant-based funding, our plans to adapt to climate change and cut emissions will not be implemented; our efforts to ensure green and sustainable growth and development will not be successful and our possibilities to address the growing threat of climate-related loss and damage will never occur.
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Evans Njewa is the chair of the Least Developed Countries group and an official in Malawi’s environment ministry
The author is “chair of the Least Developed Countries group”.
Why are those countries so undeveloped?
Malawi has lots of sunlight, good agricultural land and abundant rainfall in the wet season.
But there are problems in paradise. Transparency.org, which tracks global corruption, paints a bleak picture of Malawi corruption. 72% of surveyed locals thought corruption had increased in the last 12 months. 28% of public service users admitted they had paid a bribe.
From the Heritage Index of Economic Freedom :- Economic expansion remains fragile in the absence of a dynamic private sector. Malawi lags in competitiveness and promotion of the broad-based economic activity that is needed to reduce poverty. The poor quality of physical and legal infrastructure, made worse by the government’s inefficiency, is a serious impediment to long-term economic development.
Somehow I doubt a plane load of climate cash would help improve this situation.
Officials like Evans Njewa should put their energy into fixing Malawi’s domestic problems, to encourage more development, instead of demanding handouts from other countries.
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