Global problems in the world

2. CLIMATE FINANCE
After decades of advocating for dedicated funding to help vulnerable countries cope with the impacts of a climate crisis many of them did little to cause, developing economies and partners made a unified push for progress on this issue in 2022 — and they finally succeeded. These recourses, some of which will be delivered through a new loss and damage facility agreed at COP 27, will help them to cope with the droughts, floods, storms, and other climate-induced catastrophes, whether their onset was fast or slow. In the wake of this landmark agreement, the focus now shifts to figuring out how to make this fund operational and able to receive substantial contributions to fulfill its enormous task.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR IN 2023
"At COP 27, countries gave themselves a year to establish this new loss and damage facility and to organize other avenues and channels of funding accordingly."
David Levaï
Fellow for International Climate Policy and Diplomacy, UN Foundation
Alongside loss and damage, other important climate finance issues will need to be addressed in 2023. This includes if and how developed economies can at last reach the threshold of mobilizing $100 billion of public and private climate finance for developing economies — a threshold that they had pledged to reach annually beginning in 2020 but have yet to fulfill. Over the past two years, developed economies have also started to co-design climate finance packages with major emerging economies to accelerate their transition away from fossil fuels in a just and sustainable manner, and there is potential for another such finance package for India to be arranged in 2023.
But more structural change may also be in the making, as developed economies are under growing pressure to reform and capitalize international financial institutions, such as the World Bank, so they can invest more in climate efforts, attract private capital, and help vulnerable countries escape a cycle of catastrophes and debt. We will be closely following how this unfolds in 2023, including at a finance summit in Paris in June 2023 and the World Bank and International Monetary Fund Annual Meetings that will take place in Morocco next fall.

The war in Ukraine has led to startling food shortages—meaning there are frequently empty shelves in grocery stores in Kiev. Photo: Drop of Light/Ukraine