INTERVIEW – UNEP warns of race against time to deliver climate finance

By Dilara Hamit

ANKARA (AA) – The world is rapidly losing the window to deploy climate finance at the scale needed to prevent catastrophe, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has warned ahead of the upcoming UN climate summit in Brazil.

With each passing storm, flood or drought, developing nations are buckling under the strain and being forced to confront intensifying climate shocks without the resources or capacity to adapt, Jamil Ahmad, UNEP’s director of intergovernmental affairs, told Anadolu.

He emphasized that the widening disparity between promises and action threatens global stability, warning that climate action has become a race against time that developing nations cannot win alone.

Ahmad emphasized that South Asia – including Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan – suffers disproportionately despite low emissions. “Some countries are contributing very minimal, but they still are affected in a big way by climate change,” Ahmad said.

The crux, he added, lies in lack of ability: “Developing countries lack the capacity to be resilient … that’s why the impact is so pronounced and so severe.”

According to the World Bank, over the past two decades more than half of South Asia’s population – some 750 million people – have experienced at least one disaster such as drought, flooding, or a cyclone.

This year, heavy rains and floods have claimed more than 1,000 lives in Pakistan, sweeping away villages, submerging farmland, and forcing over 2 million people from their homes. India and Nepal have also faced similar disasters that have claimed dozens of lives and caused massive damage.

- Disasters undermine development

Ahmad outlined how acute shocks such as floods, landslides, and wildfires devastate livelihoods and infrastructure. Their long-term legacy, he said, is even more insidious: declines in crop yields, water scarcity, food insecurity, and public health costs.

“When a healthy worker falls ill due to air pollution … the whole family is affected,” he said. “If children are affected, they lose school time. If the elderly are affected, the medical bill goes up.”

The numbers paint an alarming picture. UNEP’s Adaptation Gap Report 2024 places the annual funding gap for adaptation between $187 billion and $359 billion – resources far beyond current flows.

In South Asia, climate finance is growing but still inadequate. Between 2018 and 2022, adaptation funding in the region more than doubled, reaching about $76 billion in 2022, but that still pales compared to assessed needs.

As one response to climate pressure, Ahmad pointed to Pakistan’s Living Indus initiative – a broad program to restore wetlands, revive degraded land, and rebuild water systems across the Indus Basin.

He described it as a possible blueprint for climate resilience: “Living Indus covers many aspects of sustainability, of climate, of water issues. … It talks of reviving wetlands … restoring water bodies … addressing pollution and waste.”

Though recognized by the UN under its Decade for Ecosystem Restoration, the initiative still depends on concerted financing and implementation.

Ahmad warned that intentions alone cannot change outcomes in Pakistan, where environmental distress and economic fragility both run deep.

- Perilous gap between policy and delivery

Governments across South Asia have adopted climate strategies, but Ahmad warned that the challenge has outpaced the response.

“All of these governments are trying to develop policies and strategies … to address the impact of climate change,” he said. “Action is at hand, but the intensity of the problem is so severe that these efforts sometimes lag behind.”

He pointed to barriers like underfunding, weak institution building, and technical deficits as key obstacles to scaling adaptation. “Often there is a lack of financial resources for poor countries, which prevents them from focusing more intensely on these issues,” he added.

At COP29 in Baku, developed nations agreed to mobilize $300 billion annually by 2035 to assist vulnerable countries.

But for Ahmad, this pledge is only the first step: “There is a dire need for climate finance … The developed countries have accepted this role to mobilize funding to help their partners in the developing world.”

He regards COP30, set to be held in Brazil this November, as a make-or-break moment. “It is dubbed as ‘the implementation COP’ … Whatever was agreed in previous COPs must be implemented in earnest,” he urged.