Finland goes to climate meetings to promise new climate money to poor countries, but cuts it from its own budget many times more than this.
This happened both at the Baku climate meeting in Azerbaijan, which started on Tuesday, and at the Dubai climate meeting in the United Arab Emirates a year ago.
President of the Republic Alexander Stubb told the news in Baku that Finland is giving more climate finance to the poorest countries. Stubb spoke on Tuesday, along with other heads of state, at the opening ceremony of the meeting that opened the two-week talks in Baku.
Stubb mentioned the island states whose living conditions are most acutely threatened by the climate crisis due to sea level rise.
It is about a fund called Systematic Observations Finance Facility (SOFF), into which Finland plans to put three million euros, according to Stubb. With the money, the most vulnerable countries can acquire, for example, systems for early detection of weather and its extreme phenomena, such as floods.
Also the Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (co.) made a similar monetary promise in his opening speech at the Dubai meeting in the United Arab Emirates. He said that Finland would pay three million dollars to the then newly established climate damage compensation fund.
The president’s and prime minister’s promises in the festive speeches contradict the practical actions of the Finnish government. As a whole, the government led by Orpo is cutting money from the climate work of poor countries many times over.
Development organizations calculated in their recent reportthat the current government will make hundreds of millions of cuts to climate money during its term.
A large part of Finland’s cuts are aimed at the green climate fund, which is the most important financing channel in terms of the Paris climate agreement. For example, poor African countries use the fund to reduce emissions, that is, in practice, to replace fossil energy with clean energy.
Finland drops its own contribution from one hundred million to 60 million. Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Ville Tavio (ps) told about the surgeries a year ago.
Finland just returned its cancellation
Finland has previously given money to SOFF of the poorest countries, but last year the money ended up on the cutting list.
The pot promised by Stubb means, in practice, the return of the previously cut money.
– SOFF has been supported by Finland. Now here, the plan to terminate the support was just canceled, the influence work expert Niko Humalisto The Finnish Mission Society interprets the president’s promise. He is currently following the negotiations in Baku.
Humalisto considers Stubb’s promise to be in the right direction. However, he criticizes Finland for double standards.
All money-related games are highlighted in Baku, where climate finance is the subject of the hottest debate. According to the Paris climate agreement, the countries should decide on a new goal for climate finance in Azerbaijan.
The old goal, decided in 2009, is valid. According to it, industrialized countries had to pay 100 billion dollars a year for the climate action of developing countries.
The goal was achieved for the first time in 2022. Humalisto considers redeeming the money promise as a bargaining chip for Western countries at the Baku meeting.
The EU has a member reputation at the moment the world’s largest climate financier. The amount of funding has generally increased.
– Finland is going in a different direction. This is a good example of free travel, Humalisto says.
China hit the table with a huge amount of money
In Baku, the money tussle between China and poor countries and the EU. The United States has retreated from the top brass with the election of Trump.
Humalisto says that the most important part of the meeting, i.e. the financial negotiation, started in a dismayed mood on Wednesday morning.
China and the G77 group of developing countries brought to the table a presentation on a new climate finance target. The amount was huge, 1.3 trillion dollars.
The G77 consists of South American and African countries, among others.
The need for money, much greater than the current one, has already been known before. What is worrisome from the point of view of the negotiations is instead that China and other prosperous developing countries demand in their presentation that they remain in the camp of money recipients instead of payers.
– Terrible negotiations about to start, I’m about to cry, Humalisto commented on the stalemate.
Argentina already packed its bags
For the EU, the participation of countries such as China and, for example, Saudi Arabia in financing may this time be a threshold issue for the agreement of the climate summit.
We will hardly receive promises of money from the United States in the next few years. EU countries, on the other hand, are not as eager to fill the funding gap left by the US as they were in Trump’s first term.
Moreover, it is a matter of principle. For years, the EU has been trying to break down the division between payers and receivers as recorded in the Paris Climate Agreement.
According to the agreement, all countries in the world are indeed responsible for reducing emissions, but the old division from before the agreement applies to financing. There, developing countries do not have a financial obligation, but instead receive financial support from rich industrialized countries.
However, the prosperous, new economies, i.e. China and the oil nations, are still counted as developing countries in the Paris Agreement.
In Humalisto’s opinion, the situation shows that the EU has failed in its climate diplomacy.
– Something is not working when the EU’s initiatives still do not receive support from the groups of developing countries. When the ranks of the West are cracking Trump’s with the election, forming new alliances would be even more important for the EU, Humalisto says.
The drama of the beginning of the meeting increased on Wednesday, when Argentina decided to withdraw his negotiator From the Baku climate conference.
The order to the negotiators came from the president Javier Milein from the administration. Far-right Milei is known, among other things, for his climate denialism. He has also supported Trump, who has again announced that his own country will withdraw from the entire climate agreement.
Argentina’s representatives did not comment yesterday on whether Milei plans the same.