Linda Nokuri Ebai, CMA, CSFM, CFIP,’s Post

ICYMI: Last week the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) released a landmark report highlighting that debt-for-nature swaps could raise more than USD100 billion for climate change adaptation in vulnerable countries. The report launch precedes the World Bank’s spring meetings, and sends a clear signal for what is needed when the new collective quantified goal on finance is negotiated at COP29 later this year. Read more: https://lnkd.in/epwZg4Vs #carbonfarming #carbonmarkets #carbonfinance #naturebasedsolutiosn #naturefinaqnce #debtfornature #climateaction #climatechange #climatefinance #climatejustice #climatepolicy #netnegative #netzero

Climate change finance has been mainstreamed into global financial structures which follow the same patterns as development aid. This means the main global financial institutions, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, become the “accredited” institutions involved in dispersing funds, making them loans which have to be repaid and making direct access difficult for Pacific nations. As a result, some 72% of the money is in the form of loans by the time it reaches people on the ground. The real beneficiaries are private contractors in developed countries who are brought in to build climate-resilient infrastructure. It's another stitch up by big Western finance at the expense of Pacific countries, with the people who are suffering the most getting the dregs while their governments get deeper into debt.

Debt-for-nature swaps are increasingly hitting headlines as a form of climate finance that reduces countries' debts in return for environmental commitments. https://lnkd.in/esHNSiby

“The world’s poorest and most climate-vulnerable countries are spending more than twice as much to service their debts as they receive to fight the climate crisis, according to new analysis by IIED. It also shows the situation is getting worse, with debt payments growing at a faster rate than climate support… Climate change is an existential problem for many heavily indebted LDCs and SIDS because they are so highly exposed to climate impacts yet have very little fiscal room to adapt. When a drought, flood or major storm hits, they are forced into a vicious cycle of borrowing more money to support their people and rebuild their infrastructure, further compounding their debts…. Rethinking debt and providing climate finance are two sides of the same coin. Both are needed to help the most vulnerable countries respond to climate change.” This new report from IIED shines a critical light on the tensions between debt and climate finance. Indeed, many counteries are required to expand their fossil fuel production just to meet their debt requirements. This viscous cycle needs to be urgently addressed as the world moves closer to grappling with climate finance. https://lnkd.in/eRHgtpV5

Check our article in Foreign Policy on how to transform debt-for-nature swaps to deal with the trip crisis of debt, climate change, and biodiversity loss. We propose scaling and reforming these niche financial instruments so that they can truly deal with these massive crises.

Half of all Multilateral Development Banks’ climate finance goes to Europe. Just 4% is grants. We don’t just need more but better climate finance.

The COP 29 was being hyped for its potential in unlocking Climate Finance,however the ongoing conversations in Baku hardly bring confidence to our hearts. Despite Africa being touted as solution to the global climate crisis,the much needed low cost, relevant, effective and timely financing remains a dream.The values underpinning Just Energy Transition commitments obviously missing from the table. Climate finance continue to flow upwards away from the impacted.According to many studies, the little money coming down to Africa is in form of debt instruments.Distributed equally between low-cost debt and market-rate debt, further complicating debt distress. Are current Climate financing models solving the 'real' global problems? What are drivers,actual cost and implications on the cash strapped African countries?

Alarmism is a multi-trillion dollar business model 🤔 The annual World Bank and IMF meetings have wrapped up without a concrete plan to mobilise the trillions of dollars needed to fight climate change, in a year where agreement on New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) or a new climate finance goal will be the key issue at the United Nations climate conference (COP29) in Azerbaijan. NCQG is the new amount developed countries must mobilise every year from 2025 onwards to support climate action in developing countries. Rich countries are expected to raise more than the $100 billion they promised to provide every year from 2020, but repeatedly failed. https://lnkd.in/dPC6ij-u

At COP29, the world’s biggest multilateral development banks just pledged to increase climate finance to low- and middle-income countries to USD 120 billion a year by 2030. In a briefing that forms part of our ‘Reforming Climate Finance’ series, we explore how reforms at MDBs could unlock billions of dollars in lending capacity to support climate action. Click here to read it 👉 https://lnkd.in/eEnJydeg #COP29 #COP29Azerbaijan

The Task Force on Climate, Development and the IMF published its recommendations on how to enhance IMF/WB Low Income Country Debt Sustainability Framework. Our top line recommendation is to capture climate risks and growth enhancing effects of climate investments. We also make recommendations on improving data, scenario design, the role of macro-financial models, and why a risk management approach can help us get serious about possibly high impact risks. https://lnkd.in/dRHSDSKd Tim Hirschel-Burns and I wrote up a blog to answer some questions on why the debt sustainability analysis matters for climate change and development https://lnkd.in/dhtU_GgP