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Accelerating finance for addressing loss and damage through the global stocktake

Nature Climate Change (2023)Cite this article

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The global stocktake seeks to enhance climate ambition through assessment and review of collective efforts every five years. A recent breakthrough in finance for addressing loss and damage is an opportunity to strengthen the finance agenda and rebuild much needed trust in the multilateral system.

Finance, as much an enabler of climate ambition as it is a sticking point for multilateral deliberations, will be front and centre of the GST. Katowice decisions outlined that the GST would consider information at a collective level on the provision of support from developed to developing countries for climate action, including through finance, capacity building and technology transfer (together considered “means of implementation and support”), while it additionally referred to “the finance flows, including the information referred to in Article 2, paragraph 1(c)”1. The scaled-up provision and mobilization of finance from developed to developing countries remains fundamental to the multilateral process as an expression of equity, historical responsibility and differentiated capacities and capabilities2. However, it is the inclusion of Article 2.1(c) in the GST that sets the stage for a more comprehensive look at the diversity of relevant actors (at multiple scales) and their incentives and disincentives to finance climate action, and a wider enabling framework3.

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Climate and Sustainability, Overseas Development Institute, London, UK

    C. Watson & L. Gonzalez

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  1. C. Watson
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  2. L. Gonzalez
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Correspondence to C. Watson.

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Watson, C., Gonzalez, L. Accelerating finance for addressing loss and damage through the global stocktake. Nat. Clim. Chang. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01814-1

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