Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu has urged the developed world to honour their pledge of $100 billion a year to help the Global South cope with climate change. He also advocated for fair and equal access to capital for developing countries at the 19th summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Uganda.
At the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Kampala, Uganda, on Saturday, Bola Tinubu who was represented by Atiku Bagudu, minister of budget and economic planning, according to a statement by Folasade Boriowo, director of information of the ministry on Saturday, made a strong case for climate justice and economic equity for developing countries.
He said that climate change is a global challenge that requires collective action, but the burden and cost of adaptation should not fall disproportionately on the Global South.
He reminded the developed countries of their commitment to provide $100 billion a year by 2020 to support developing countries in their climate actions, as agreed at the COP15 in Copenhagen in 2009 and reaffirmed at the COP16 in Cancun and COP21 in Paris.
However, according to a recent report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the actual amount of climate finance provided by developed countries in 2019 was only $79.6 billion, falling short of the target.
Tinubu said this is unacceptable and urged NAM to work with the United Nations to demand that the developed countries fulfil their promise and provide $1 trillion climate finance at the earliest to the developing countries.
He said this is crucial for enhancing the resilience and capacity of the developing countries to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
He also stressed the need for equitable access to capital and resources for development for the developing countries, saying that they are not asking for sympathy or charity, but for fair and equal opportunity.
He cited the statistics that show the huge gap between the financial resources available to the 120 countries that make up the NAM, which account for over 4.4 billion or about 55 percent of the world’s population, and those of some developed countries.
“The total budgetary resources for the 120 countries is less than $3.5 trillion, which is less than the budget of the United States alone. Whereas the aggregate public debt of less than $6.6 trillion, mostly at higher interest rates and shorter tenor, is about one-sixth of one or a few developed countries,” he said.
He said these figures indicate that the developing countries suffer from a lack of access to capital and resources for development, which hampers their ability to address some of the most pressing challenges in the world today.
He called for a financing mechanism and equitable capital market access that can provide adequate financial resources to the Global South.
NAM which is currently chaired by Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is a forum of over 100 countries that are not formally aligned with nor against any major power bloc. The summit, themed “Towards a New World Order to Live Well”, aims to promote peace, solidarity and cooperation among its members.