Climate Finance: Who Is Being Fooled?

By Steve Ephraem

A woman, Mai B, is on the road side with a reed bucketful of green bananas. Her hope is to find a buyer of her produce so that she can finance the schooling of her children. A widow in her own right, Mai B spends almost three days to finally have her produce purchased.

Flash back six years ago, her life was a bit fine. She was working together with her husband in her banana and pineapple plantations. Then came the climate induced Tropical Cycle Idai of 2019 which hit Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

Mai B lost her husband and two children who were washed away by the angry waters of Nyahode and Rusitu rivers. They have not been traced since then. The husband and children are thought to be some of the people whose bodies were found in Mozambique but could not be identified.

Tropical Cyclone Idai of 2019 and its ghastly effects is no secret to anyone is concerned about climate change. It is an example of how the Global South is suffering due to climate change. It represents how communities in climate prone regions suffer during climate induced disasters.

Enter the Global North. It developed due to industrial agriculture and fossil fuels. In this wake of climate change, it dictates how the Global South should shun fossil fuels and adapt to green energy in order to mitigate climate change. In that regard, it releases billions of dollars in the name of climate finance.

One then wonders how a case like Mai B and other people in the Global South could really go green. She lost her livelihood yet expected to solarise her home and use Liquid Petroleum Gas as fuel? She can’t afford a decent meal, let alone the green energy. But the Global North is making a lot of statement that it is supporting climate finance.

According to an ActionAid report titled “How the Finance Flows: Corporate capture of public finance fuelling the climate crisis in the Global South,” in the Global South countries, the fossil fuel sector has been receiving a shocking annual average of US$438.6 billion a year in publicly financed subsidies, between 2016 (when the Paris Agreement was signed) and 2023.

The industrial agriculture sector has benefited from publicly financed subsidies worth a staggering US$238 billion a year on average, in the years between 2016 and 2021 (the last year of available data).

Climate finance grants from the Global North for climate-hit countries are still grossly insufficient to support climate action and the necessary transitions. Climate finance grants amount to just 1 over 20 of the Global South public finance going to fossil fuels and industrial agriculture.

Mai B, who struggles to afford basic necessities, finds it impossible to transition to green energy solutions like solar power or Liquid Petroleum Gas. It is reminder of the harsh realities faced by many in the Global South. Despite the Global North financing climate mitigation, the funds often fall short of addressing the immediate needs of those most affected by climate change.

The disparity between the rhetoric of climate finance and the reality on the ground highlights a critical issue: the need for genuine, accessible support for those on the frontlines of climate change. Until the Global North becomes sincere in climate finance, communities in the Global South shall remain vulnerable will continue to bear the brunt of a crisis they did little to create.