Finance
Rich nations failed to meet $100 bn climate finance promise in 2022: Oxfam
Illustration: Binay Sinha
Rich countries falsely claimed that they provided nearly $ 116 billion in climate finance to developing countries in 2022, while the actual financial support given was not more than $ 35 billion, according to global non-profit organization Oxfam International.
At the 2009 UN climate conference in Copenhagen, rich nations pledged to provide $ 100 billion annually from 2020 to help developing countries mitigate and adapt to climate change. However, delays in achieving this goal have eroded trust between developed and developing nations and have been a continual source of contention during annual climate negotiations.
In May, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said that developed countries had met the long-standing $ 100-billion-a-year promise by providing nearly $ 116 billion in climate finance to developing countries in 2022.
However, nearly 70 per cent of this money was in the form of loans, many of which were provided at profitable market rates, adding to the debt burden of already heavily indebted countries.
“Rich countries have again effectively short-changed low- and middle-income countries by as much as $ 88 billion in 2022,” Oxfam said.
Oxfam estimated that the “true value” of climate finance provided by rich countries in 2022 is as little as $ 28 billion and no more than $ 35 billion, with at most only $ 15 billion earmarked for adaptation, which is crucial for helping climate-vulnerable countries address the worsening impacts of the climate crisis.
This discrepancy between financial promises and reality continues to undermine the trust needed between countries and is materially vital, as climate action in many countries depends on this climate finance, it said.
Oxfam’s figures reflected climate-related loans as their grant equivalents, rather than at their face value, in order to gauge rich countries’ real financial effort.
The organisation also accounted for the difference between loans at market rate and those at preferential terms, while also considering the overly generous claims about the climate-related significance of these funds.
Low- and middle-income countries should instead get most of the money in grants, which also need to be better targeted toward authentic climate-related initiatives that will help them adapt to the impacts of the climate crisis and move away from polluting fossil fuels,” Liguori said.
At the moment they’re being penalized twice. First, by the climate harm they did little to cause, and then by paying interest on the loans they’re having to take to deal with it.
Oxfam said its estimates are based on original research by INKA Consult and Steve Cutts using the latest OECD climate-related development finance datasets for 2021 and 2022. Figures are rounded to the nearest 0.5 billion.
According to new data from the OECD, rich countries claimed they mobilized $ 115.9 billion in climate finance for Global South countries in 2022. Nearly $ 92 billion of the reported amount was provided as public finance, with 69.4 per cent of public finance provided as loans in 2022, up from 67.7 per cent in 2021.
According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the funds required for adaptation in developing countries are estimated to be between $ 215 billion and $ 387 billion per year this decade.
Climate finance will be at the centre of the UN climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, where the world will reach the deadline to agree on the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) the new amount developed nations must mobilize every year starting 2025 to support climate action in developing countries.
However, a consensus on NCQG will not be easy.
Some rich nations argue that countries with high emissions and higher economic capacities, such as China and petro-states that classify themselves as developing countries under the Paris Agreement, should also contribute to climate finance.
Developing countries, however, cite Article 9 of the Paris Agreement, which states that climate finance should flow from developed to developing nations.
Developed countries want the funds to prioritize nations most vulnerable to climate impacts, such as the least developed countries and small island developing states. Developing countries assert that they all deserve support.
Developing nations also demand clarity on what constitutes climate finance, insisting that development finance should not be counted as climate finance and that funds should not be provided as loans, as has happened in the past.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First Published: Jul 11 2024 | 9:57 PM IST
Finance
Low-income Chinese girl aces gaokao, inspires live-streamers offering help
A girl from a disadvantaged rural family in central China topped this year’s gaokao, attracting numerous live-streamers eager to finance her education, which she declined.
The home of 18-year-old secondary school graduate Han Yaping in a Henan province village was recently bustling with live-streamers.
This attention came after Han achieved an impressive score of 699 out of 750 in the gaokao, China’s national college entrance exam.
She has received offers from China’s two leading universities, Tsinghua University and Peking University.
Han’s accomplishment is particularly remarkable given her family’s impoverished circumstances.
Her mother suffers from ankylosing spondylitis, an inflammatory arthritis affecting the spine, preventing her from working. Her father, who earns a living through farming and odd jobs, serves as the family’s sole provider. Han also has a younger sister.
Finance
UK financial regulator publishes landmark AI review
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a landmark review on Monday that proposes recommendations to regulate the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the financial decisions made by consumers.
The review, titled the Mills Review, anticipates that both consumers and firms will start delegating “more financial decision-making to AI systems,” including for agreements, initiating transactions, and executing decisions “within agreed parameters.” One of the key findings of the review outlined that while AI can help bridge advice gaps and “support growth,” there remain risks “associated with fraud, cyber security, and consumer harm.” Conducting the review, Sheldon Mills highlighted that “AI can also amplify risks: bias, discrimination, exclusion, opaque decision-making (particularly when multiple AI models interact), misleading or hallucinatory advice and erosion of consumer trust.”
The review stated that presently, one in five adults in the UK are “already open to AI making decisions for them,” particularly when decisions feel “complex or high stakes.” It found that roughly 26 percent of the population “trust general-purpose tools such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini for financial advice” with little awareness that such platforms provide no “formal routes to recourse” or protections.
Overall, the Mills Review identified four areas that it anticipates will be impacted by AI in the financial sector: “the transformation of firms,” “new consumer journeys,” “a reshaped competition landscape,” and “amplified financial crime and cyber risk.” The FCA projected the shift in how consumers and firms consult AI to take place by 2030.
The Mills Review put forth seven “priority” recommendations to be considered by the FCA Board. It recommended that any transitions to autonomous AI models be monitored and that regulatory frameworks and perimeters be adapted and secured. The review called for the strengthening of “system-wide coordination and oversight,” the scaling up of the FCA’s AI Lab to enable it to support AI models and innovation for agentic finance, and an “AI-enabled agentic supervisory model” to be built and adopted. Finally, it recommended that a trusted “public-interest AI-enabled financial capability service” be developed.
The FCA announced, in the press release, that it will launch an AI “good and poor practice publication” in late 2026.
Finance
Fayette County Public Schools Board of Education approves audit contract, new finance director position
LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) – The Fayette County Public Schools Board of Education approved a one-year audit contract capped at $131,750 plus $225 per hour during a virtual meeting Monday, along with a new finance director job description.
The contract is with Mauldin & Jenkins Certified Public Accountants, an Atlanta-based firm, and covers the 2025-26 fiscal year and the restatement of the 2024-25 fiscal year and ancillary services through FY 2029-2030. The work is set to be completed by Nov. 15.
The board approved the contract in a 5-0 vote.
Audit contract details
Interim Chief Financial Officer Kyna Koch said the cost is already accounted for in the district’s budget.
“And is actually less than we expected given our current situation — we were thrilled with the bid,” Koch said.
Koch said she believes this is Mauldin & Jenkins’ first school district audit in Kentucky, but that the firm works with school districts of more than 100,000 students throughout the Southeast.
“Quite frankly when I spoke to the folks at KDE they were thrilled because we’re running kind of short of auditors who want to do school district audits — so all around I think this was a win-win for everyone,” Koch said.
New finance director position
The board also approved a new job description for the position of Director of Finance. Acting Superintendent Dr. Bill Bradford said the title will replace two associate director positions.
“Which will not only save the school district money but it’s also going to streamline our work and align internal controls to make room for a more efficient unit,” Bradford said.
Koch said the position will be posted as soon as possible following the board’s approval.
Closed session
The board went into closed session for more than an hour to discuss pending investigations that could lead to employee discipline. When the board returned, it took no action and adjourned the meeting.
Copyright 2026 WKYT. All rights reserved.
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