Living 1.5 meters (5 feet) above the rising seas, as my country, the Maldives, does, is what more underscores the urgency of climate change.
However, developing nations like the Maldives and others in the 74-nation Climate Vulnerable Forum require funding to deal with climate change.
By 2030, the most vulnerable countries will need an estimated $ 490 billion to finance their climate strategies, including mitigation, adaptation, and damage and loss. However, major emitters’ funding for climate change continues to be woefully inadequate.
It is an indictment of a dated, underdeveloped global financial system that ignores those working on the climate front lines. If a global financial system denies the most vulnerable people the chance to develop resilience in the face of climate change while allowing others to release the greenhouse gases that are causing rising temperatures, what good is it?
In this context, carbon markets have the power to mobilize urgent climate finance, which is essential for bridging the funding gap and advance climate justice.
Carbon markets are one of the levers that, by 2030, could bring in an additional $ 20 billion annually to V20 countries, according to the Climate Vulnerable Forum and the Vulnerable 20 Finance Ministers (CVF-V20). This would significantly improve climate resilience, lessen economic losses, and help these countries pursue sustainable development.
Implementing national climate plans, or NDCs, would be reduced by half, lowering the cost of implementation, and supporting other development goals. While keeping emissions reductions in line with national priorities, it would also increase revenue for governments, particularly for those promoting nature-based solutions, mitigation, and resilience. The host nation’s carbon projects could experience a seven-fold impact as a result.
Many of the V20 nations, for instance, by preserving and recovering tropical and temperate forests, have unmatched abilities for reducing emissions and reducing carbon emissions. They are therefore in a good position to host important, carbon-creditable projects that promote both domestic and international climate goals.
However, these nations typically lack the expertise to access carbon finance and realize the full potential of it because they are frequently the least equipped with tailored market infrastructure, appropriate policies, and appropriate regulations. They also have the least access to carbon finance.
These obstacles prevent emerging markets and developing nations from leveraging carbon markets to promote sustainable development goals like decarbonization and climate-resilient economies.
Climate-vulnerable nations must be given the power to make informed, sovereign decisions regarding carbon market engagement and management in order to reduce the risk of carbon markets exploiting developing economies and maximize potential climate impacts and benefits.
To assist developing nations in integrating carbon market access into their climate prosperity plans, the CVF–V20 and the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI) are collaborating to do so. Climate-vulnerable countries’ multiphase national investment and access to technology are used to help them turn climate risks into profitable opportunities, as climate prosperity plans aim to do.
The CVF–V20 will use the updated carbon markets access toolkit from VCMI to assist its members in evaluating and managing their participation in various carbon markets, including those established under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.
The toolkit will provide V20 nations with a step-by-step guide to important decisions, including how to address legal and institutional considerations and how to host high-integrity carbon projects that produce tangible benefits, drawing on the learning from VCMI’s Access Strategies Programme.
Countries have benefited from VCMI’s Access Strategies Programme’s assistance since 2021 in developing and selling high-integrity carbon credits that meet their needs. In order to address concerns about the unfair treatment of local communities, the Mexican state of Yucatan created best practice guidance for carbon markets, as well as a decision-making tool for the Benin government, which found a $11.3 billion climate investment gap by 2030.
Given that, to date, the international community has not provided financially disadvantaged nations with assistance to address climate change, initiatives like this are all the more significant.
These nations are strengthening their domestic capacities to attract additional funding for investments in climate, development, and nature while also calling for changes to the world financial system. Working with partners like VCMI to address the urgency and breadth of the challenges we face, climate-vulnerable nations are collaborating to find solutions.
V20 nations can use carbon markets to make wise use of them, both domestically and internationally, to increase resilience. Its very survival is dependent on it.
Source: Aljazeera
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