Wealthy nations promised to give billions to developing nations to cope with or prevent climate change. Here are some of the results from an in-depth study conducted by Reuters and Stanford University journalists:
- “Italy helped a retailer open chocolate and gelato stores across Asia.
- The United States offered a loan for a coastal hotel expansion in Haiti.
- Belgium backed the film “La Tierra Roja,” a love story set in the Argentine rainforest.
- And Japan is financing a new coal plant in Bangladesh and an airport expansion in Egypt.”
Reuters contacted representatives of each donating country and learned that they think it was just fine.
“A U.S. official said the hotel project counts because it includes stormwater controls and hurricane protection measures. A Belgian government spokesman defended counting the grant for the rain-forest movie as climate finance because the film touches on deforestation, a driver of climate change.” Etcetera, etcetera.
All the “climate fund” donations, says Reuters, added up to $182 billion between 2015 and 2020 (latest year for which figures are available). The projects listed above received $2.6 billion.
My view? The authors of this article deserve a Pulitzer Prize.
Image of a private beach in Haiti is by MichelleWalz and licensed under CC BY 2.0.
A trillion here and a trillion there and pretty soon we’re talking real money! Where is Mr. Dirksen when we need him?
Gelato does help people adapt to warming.
Question: Does Argentina have any genuine rain forest?
Ditto re the Pulitzer.
Re: Argentine rainforest. There is a rainforest in the northeast, but it already has a protected private reserve.
Re: Argentine rainforest. There is a rainforest in the northeast, but it already has a protected private reserve.