Lives In The Balance As UN Debates Climate Finance

Behind wrangling at UN climate talks over financial aid for poor countries dealing with increasingly extreme weather and bracing for worse to come, real-world projects that can save livelihoods and sometimes lives are queued up, waiting for approval and money

Bonn, May 9 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 9th May, 2018 ) :Behind wrangling at UN climate talks over financial aid for poor countries dealing with increasingly extreme weather and bracing for worse to come, real-world projects that can save livelihoods -- and sometimes lives -- are queued up, waiting for approval and money.

Rich countries are slowly opening the spigots to help reinforce coastlines sinking under rising seas, convert agriculture to drought-resistant crops, or switch public transportation from petrol to electricity powered by the sun and wind.

Tens of billions of Dollars -- the true figure is sharply contested -- from public and private sources are now flowing every year. But that falls well short of the $100 billion (84 billion Euros) per annum promised from 2020, and is a pittance compared to the trillions experts agree will be needed to engineer the global transition to a green economy.

The 197-nation Paris climate treaty calls for capping the rise in temperature to "well below" two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), and pressure is mounting to set the bar even lower at 1.5 C.

That may be mission impossible, according to some scientists. The global thermometer has already gone up by 1 full degree Celsius, and the pathway to a 1.5 C world has narrowed to a tightrope walk.

Even the 2 C target is seen as hugely ambitious. In any scenario, however, poor regions highly exposed to climate risk are confronting life-altering impacts from carbon pollution, sometimes made worse by poor choices.