Leaders | Splitting the climate bill

There is a better way to help poor countries fight climate change

Governments cannot pay for it all, but they can attract private capital

Smoke raises from a chimney of a power plant in Wilhelmshaven, Germany, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

Nov 17th 2022

From TONNES of carbon to degrees of global temperature rise, it is not unusual for un climate summits to revolve around numbers. At this year’s cop, held in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, one set of figures is dominating the conversation above all else: the size of the bill. At the Copenhagen summit in 2009 rich countries promised to supply annual climate financing of $100bn to poor countries by 2020, to help them slow climate change and resist its effects. The most that has ever arrived is $83bn, in 2021.

This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “Splitting the bill”