At a time when economic and geopolitical headwinds are making ambitious agreement on climate finance more difficult, China and Brazil are uniquely positioned to set a new course for international climate finance, given their ambitious leadership, robust international advocacy and clout with Global South countries.
Dialogue Earth reports that a recent ministerial meeting on climate change in China’s Wuhan set the tone: alongside South Africa and India, as part of the BASIC bloc of newly industrialised countries, both Brazil and China reaffirmed their commitment to multilateralism and low-carbon development. Minsters also emphasised the need for urgent action and a new collective goal for climate finance, moving from billions to trillions of dollars annually to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.
As a leading manufacturer and supplier of low-carbon energy technologies, China is uniquely positioned to drive investments that accelerate the adoption of affordable solutions worldwide, thereby facilitating green transitions. China is already contributing to this effort across Latin America and other regions. Meanwhile, the current Brazilian government is proposing a new industrial policy and an ecological transition programme focused on enhancing resilience, promoting environmental sustainability, and advancing energy transition in all its productive sectors.
Beyond financing, there is also tremendous value that the two nations can contribute to support partner countries in the Global South, particularly in advisory and technical services and technology transfer, as well as in developing and implementing transition plans and co-creating investment opportunities. This can – indeed, should – be done in a way that complements existing efforts by richer donor countries, and keeps the door open to finance from other sources.
China and Brazil have a historic opportunity to demonstrate a novel, more robust model of South-South climate cooperation that, beyond financing, is about solidarity in the face of shared challenges, and shared commitment to net-zero economic transitions. Such a partnership would signal a robust corrective to current biases and shortcomings in international climate finance. It could help pave the way to a successful outcome at COP29, create a more resilient, representative and politically stable international climate finance framework, as well as building momentum and ambition on the road to COP30 in Brazil in 2025.
Extract: from article in Dialogue Earth, September 27, 2024. https://dialogue.earth/…/opinion-brazil-and-china…/