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Written by Kate Abnett
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The United Nations’ main climate agency is severely underfunded, a Reuters analysis of documents from the agency says, as lack of funding hampers international climate dialogue. Diplomats say this is a possibility.
The analysis found a hole in the 2024 budget of at least 57 million euros ($61.53 million). This represents almost half of the funding needed by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat to conduct annual climate change negotiations among around 200 countries and support international negotiations on climate change. To implement agreements entered into.
The budget set for the UNFCCC spans two years. The total budget for 2024-2025 (combining the three main budget lines) is 240 million euros, about half of which will be allocated this year.
Member States of the UNFCCC are expected to sign the budget and contribute funds. The budget includes a core fund to which these countries are required to contribute, a supplementary fund to which they solicit voluntary contributions, and another voluntary fund to support the attendance of diplomats from poor countries at the UN climate change negotiations. Contains funds.
A few countries, such as Japan and Germany, have exceeded their payment obligations, but others, particularly the United States and China, the world’s two largest economies and biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, have not yet met their payment obligations. Contribution deadline is January 1st of each year.
The Secretariat, established under the 1992 UNFCCC Convention, is the world’s main body that coordinates international efforts to reduce climate-warming emissions and holds summits where countries hold each other accountable.
Budget shortfalls have forced it to scale back its activities, from reducing meeting hours at its headquarters in Bonn, Germany to canceling this year’s regional Climate Week events. Regional summits held in countries such as Kenya and Malaysia last year saw billions of dollars in investment commitments from governments, investors and philanthropic organizations for renewable energy, reforestation and other climate change-focused projects. have gathered.
“We are working tirelessly, but our resources are becoming increasingly stretched,” a UNFCCC spokesperson told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Jennifer Morgan, Germany’s special envoy for climate change, urged countries to find solutions.
“We need a climate secretariat that can function,” Morgan told Reuters. “We are facing a massive crisis around the world.”
Recording late payments
As of this month, the UNFCCC had received €63 million ($68 million) in contributions for 2024.
U.S. and Chinese officials told Reuters that the two countries would make the payments this year, but did not say when. State Department spokesman Melvin Felix said the United States “remains willing to provide significant contributions” to support the secretariat this year. China’s Foreign Ministry said China would “fulfill its obligations as usual.”
As of October, the United States still owes €7.3 million to the UNFCCC’s 2024 core budget, but has contributed €2.5 million to the supplementary budget. Although China has contributed 497,000 euros to the supplementary fund, there is still a backlog of 5.6 million euros towards the core budget.
Even if both countries meet their obligations this year, it will not be enough to fill the hole in the UNFCCC’s overall budget.
Countries may be delayed in meeting payment deadlines for logistical reasons, such as when national budget cycles do not run according to the calendar year or when payments require additional legislative approval. National elections could also cause delays.
In past years, these issues have typically been resolved by October, and a Reuters analysis showed that this year’s delays were the worst in UNFCCC history in terms of total budget shortfalls.
The UNFCCC’s budget has more than doubled from its 2014-2015 level of around €102 million, amid a flurry of new global climate agreements.
“Global pressure”
Reuters spoke to more than a dozen diplomats involved in UN climate change negotiations and representatives of the UNFCCC. Most spoke anonymously.
Eight of the diplomats expressed concern that a lack of funding could undermine UN climate negotiations at a time when governments are seeking trillions of dollars to invest in climate change.
The diplomats cited previously unreported financial difficulties, including forcing the secretariat to extend employment contracts for only a few months at a time and hampering the ability of representatives from poor countries to finance their travels abroad. He cited examples that are already impacting the operations of the UNFCCC. Climate discussions.
The UNFCCC told Reuters there is a $2.2 million (€2.04 million) shortfall in a fund it plans to pay to hundreds of diplomats attending climate change talks, including the COP29 summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, next month. admitted that.
Mohamed Nasr, Egypt’s chief climate change negotiator, said weakening the UNFCCC’s work by defunding it would mean “creating space for weakening global climate action.”
“This process involves not only negotiating decisions, but also global pressure on leaders to implement them,” Nasr told Reuters.
Over the years, countries have steadily increased the budget demands of the UNFCCC while resisting increases in their own financial obligations, as they have voted to approve additional climate change negotiations and events to UNFCCC operations. . As a result, the UNFCCC has become increasingly dependent on voluntary donations.
For example, the UNFCCC is overseeing discussions to resolve rules for carbon credit trading. This goal was outlined in the landmark Paris Climate Agreement in 2015 and taken forward at the COP26 UN Climate Summit in Glasgow in 2021. Other efforts include coordinating negotiations towards climate finance targets. Countries are expected to approve it at COP29.
Split budgets, combining mandatory and voluntary national contributions, will allow some countries to make UNFCCC payments through different government ministries and approval processes. Countries participating in supplementary budgets can also specify how their funds will be used, but these requests are not made public and are not necessarily binding.
signs of tension
In addition to lacking core budget funds, the UNFCCC’s supplementary budget was also significantly underfunded. By October 1, the Secretariat had received only €41 million of the €152.3 million supplementary budget for 2024-2025.
The funding crisis became clear in March, when the UNFCCC called for emergency funding from rich countries. The UK and Germany responded with a total of €1.5 million, which will enable the UNFCCC to support a delegation at the talks in Bonn in June.
In an update sent to governments in May, UNFCCC Executive Director Simon Stiehl said: “To ensure that all parties, especially the most vulnerable, are adequately represented throughout this year’s process, “More of the promised funding needs to be delivered.”
With the UNFCCC’s coffers in the red, COP29 host Azerbaijan said last month it would help countries attend the November summit. Azerbaijan has pledged to cover the travel and hotel costs of four representatives from each of the 40 small island developing States participating in the talks.
Azerbaijan is a middle-income country and its diplomats are eligible for UNFCCC financial assistance.
The UNFCCC is also working to reduce costs. National talks were able to be held in Bonn in June, but the five diplomats who took part in the talks canceled their usual live video broadcasts to allow them to participate remotely, in what they called a cost-cutting measure.
A UNFCCC spokesperson said cost-cutting efforts had reduced the Secretariat’s required supplementary budget by more than €20 million for 2024-2025.
Some diplomats said the cuts came at the expense of poorer countries’ representation.
Daniel Rand, Fiji’s advisor on climate change negotiations, said of the suspension of remote participation: “Policy teams often expect to be able to monitor proceedings remotely and provide a backstop, but they are unable to do so completely. We will lose it,” he said.
“Logical limits and human limits”
When countries signed the UNFCCC Convention in 1992, they gave it the core mandate of promoting dialogue and cooperation between governments in addressing climate change. These talks have since led to more global agreements, such as the Paris Agreement on the transition away from fossil fuels and last year’s COP28 agreement.
UNFCCC Director-General Stier Stier lamented the delay in funding from countries, despite governments requesting the UNFCCC to do more.
“There are logical and human limits to this approach,” Stiel said in a June speech.
Some countries are paying more than they can afford. Japan voluntarily paid 11 million euros, exceeding the core budget payment of 3 million euros. Germany provided a core budget of 2.3 million euros and a further 7.3 million euros in supplementary funds.
One diplomat said that by being more frugal, the UNFCCC could strengthen its case for larger core budgets, for example by negotiating with COP summit organizers for lower hotel rates for UNFCCC-funded delegations. He said there is. Some noted that the United Nations had not yet fully implemented the UN auditor’s recommendations, which cover areas such as staff selection and employee welfare.
Asked about these criticisms, a UNFCCC spokesperson said the fact that countries were asking the body to do more represented a “vote of confidence”.
“However, if funding is not increased commensurately and many existing funding commitments are not fulfilled on time, more time will be available to expand and reallocate existing resources at a time when many staff are focused on This in itself creates huge inefficiencies, as they have to spend more than 200,000 yen, who are already literally working around the clock,” the spokesperson said.
(1 euro = $1.0982)
(1 dollar = 0.9102 euro)
