At a UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meeting in Marrakech, Morocco, eight years ago, rich countries promised the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) support for “immediate and urgent” actions on adaptation to climate change. The UNFCCC then created the LDC Fund with voluntary contributions from the rich countries and gave each LDC US$200,000 to carry out a National Adaptation Programme of Action to identify its most urgent adaptation needs.
So far, 39 of the national reports have been completed. The cost of implementing the actions they identified would exceed US$1.6 billion. However, the LDC Fund has less than US$200 million and only a handful of the projects have been funded.
“The LDCs are demanding that the rich countries pledge up to US$2 billion over the next five years in order to fulfil the promise they made eight years ago,” said Saleemul Huq, senior fellow in the Climate Change Group at the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development. “The rich countries,” he said, “can and must live up to their words and massively increase their funding to compensate the least developed countries.”
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