UK Government ministers have already failed on one of their key aims at COP26 – and they’re banking on the private sector to bail them out.
Alok Sharma made it very clear in the run up to the climate summit that his team had four key aims, and one he was especially keen to tell us about was the $100 billion countries committed to provide developing countries to help mitigate climate impacts.
That agreement was made 12 years ago, and was due to start as an annual payment from 2021 to 2025 - but countries are still $20bn short, only delivering around $80bn a year currently.
Sharma clearly did not get the level of agreement he intended, saying that it is “regrettable” is a cop-out.
READ MORE: Overdue $100bn climate finance target three years late
Paart of his role as President was to secure this cash and finally get real mobilisation, and they have failed before the summit is even out of the gate.
The world leaders' planes have barely landed in their home countries, and Sharma has thrown in the towel.
There were small commitments from some countries, others have joined and some have committed more, but all in all this is just an old plan that the government picked up.
It isn’t something innovative they’ve come up with, they don’t explain how the money will be used or where it will go specifically, and the pledges from new countries are vague.
Sharma (centre) admitted the target would not be met at a press conference on Wednesday
This money is important. Developing countries have been facing the brunt of climate change caused by wealthy nations.
Countries owe it to them to step up and help stop their homes from being flooded or ravaged in a wildfire, they need to have the money and resources to tackle these issues as they arise. There are literally lives at stake.
We need to listen to these countries, who don’t have the piles of cash sitting around that wealthy countries do, in how to fight climate change and what they need to survive.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon meets with US president Joe Biden in Glasgow
It’s a human issue, we need to help each other in any way we can to stop the climate crisis from getting any worse.
Although $100 billion does sound like a lot, it’s barely on the way to what we need to really fight climate change, with the real figure thought to be around $100 trillion.
Step in Mark Carney (pictured below), former Bank of England Governor and now advisor to Boris Johnson.
Carney (left) with Chancellor Rishi Sunak
He knows where the trillions are, in private finance, and he’s managed to get 450 financial institutions to sign up to a Glasgow Alliance.
Firms that want to join the net-zero club have to sign up to guidelines to reach net zero emissions by 2050, have interim targets for the end of this decade for their fair share of a 50% decarbonisation target, and report on their progress.
Whether or not this will have any real impact on financial firms stopping investment in fossil fuels remains to be seen.
With the group holding 40% of the world's assets on their books, the Tories are no doubt hoping that the private financial drive will mitigate their failures in the public sector, as per usual.
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