00:00Insufficient, inadequate and an insult is what many developing country negotiators said
00:06and is what global civil society said. In fact, the one press conference by developing country
00:14negotiators said this is a joke but it's a deadly joke and it's a deadly joke for people on the
00:19planet. This is nowhere enough. The UN has said we need trillions and has warned we are already
00:26have 1.5 degree on life support and that by the end of the century we'll be at three degrees.
00:32This was called a finance cut for a reason because developing countries need finance to
00:37be able to cut their emissions, to be able to adapt now to ever increasing temperatures and
00:42of course meet the scale of loss and damage which is devastating not just people's lives
00:47and livelihoods but overwhelming many developing countries and to be able to transition cleanly
00:53that needed finance and the money that was put on the table and I have to say we had two weeks
00:59of negotiations where developed countries refused to put a number and then at the very last moment
01:04put this totally inadequate number and it's not a real commitment as well because it is not
01:12guaranteed that that will be public grants. In fact, it's very likely that much of it will be
01:17debt-inducing loans and other financial instruments so far far off from what is needed
01:24and a real I think just a real slap in the face for developing countries who expect to
01:31develop countries to come and negotiate in good faith. Yeah well as you say a deadly joke that's
01:36just very sobering indeed that thought. Talking a little bit more about the debt side of things that
01:42is a recurring critique isn't it that much of the climate finance is provided in loan form which
01:47just exacerbates the debt burden on the global south. Absolutely, look it's like an arsonist
01:55who burns down somebody's home but turns their back to the flames and then tells the victim
02:00pick up the bill and if not you can't afford to here I'll lend you a loan and we'll benefit from
02:06that. It's just incredible to think that this is what is being offered to developing countries
02:12but we know it is. Of the 2,900 billion pledge that was made just over 30 billion of that was
02:20a new and additional public grant climate finance. The rest was overwhelmingly in double counting
02:26existing financial flows or in debt creating loans and we know that many developing countries are
02:32trapped and not just in unsustainable debt repayments where they're spending more on paying
02:37back their debt than they are in protecting their citizens but because of unjust tax and trade rules
02:43they're also locked into having no choice but to exploit their natural resources whether that's
02:49fossil fuels to be able to pay back that debt so we know we need to cut emissions and those have
02:56to be done equitably and fairly and of course developed countries bear the largest responsibility
03:00for this but this finance is not a charity, it's not a gift that developed countries are
03:07giving to developing countries. It's a legal obligation, it was a legal obligation in the
03:10climate convention and it's a legal obligation under the Paris agreement and really what's
03:16happening behind the scenes here is that the United States and in the shadows the UK, the European
03:22Union and other developed countries really want to dismantle what's left of the Paris agreement
03:27and create a new agreement where they don't want to take any responsibility for anything and they
03:34will say that the responsibility to cut emissions is a challenge for governments to meet domestically
03:40and nationally and of course that means what we're going to see is what the UN special rapporteur
03:45on extreme poverty coined climate apartheid where the wealthy, where the rich will use their wealth
03:50to seek safety and it will be the poor who are left to burn and drown and I think that's the
03:55world we are heading towards unless rich countries you know step up and do their fair share of effort.
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