Spending on carbon-reduction and climate-protection measures by governments and companies fell for a second year, threatening the United Nations’ goal to cap global warming at safe levels, according to a research report.
World expenditures on renewables, energy efficiency and measures that protect against the effects of climate change slid $28 billion, or 8 per cent, to about $331 billion in 2013, according to the report published today by the Climate Policy Initiative, a San Francisco-based analysis company.
Governments are trying to devise a new global agreement by the end of next year that would cap the increase in the world’s temperature since the Industrial Revolution to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
To achieve that, annual spending on measures like wind and solar power needs to more than double to $790 billion by 2020, the International Energy Agency says.
“Global investments in a cleaner, more resilient economy are decreasing and the gap between finance needed and actually delivered is growing,” Barbara Buchner, a senior director of Climate Policy Initiative and lead author of the study, said in an e-mailed statement. “Climate finance is a key ingredient to bring the world on a 2-degree Celsius pathway.”
The IEA figure doesn’t include spending on measures to adapt to the effects of climate change, which were incorporated into the CPI total, making up about 9 per cent of the spending.
Government spending last year was largely unchanged at $137 billion as private investment fell 14 per cent to $193 billion, largely on the lower cost of solar panels, the report said.
Aid pledges
Spending on “mitigation” measures that reduce emissions totaled $302 billion, and expenditure on “adaptation” to protect against climate extremes was $25 billion. The remainder was made up of spending spanning the two categories.
Flows to developing nations from richer ones declined by $8 billion last year to $34 billion. US President Barack Obama and other western leaders in 2009 pledged to ramp up annual climate aid to the developing world, including private spending, to $100 billion by 2020.
The UN’s Green Climate Fund, set up to channel an unspecified portion of that climate funding, is holding a pledging conference in Berlin today. It’s targeting initial contributions totaling at least $10 billion, and has already chalked up pledges of more than $7 billion from countries including the US, Japan, France and Germany.
