Wealthy governments won’t fulfill a pledge to provide $100 billion a year to help developing countries fight climate change until at least 2023, according to a new report from climate negotiators, a setback that comes just days before a closely watched United Nations climate summit starts in Scotland.
The pledge was a key part of the 2015 Paris climate accord, helping to persuade developing nations to sign the deal and commit to limit their own emissions.
Rich nations said they would funnel $100 billion a year from 2020 to 2025 to poorer countries to help them transition to greener energy and adapt to the effects of climate change, such as rising sea levels and drought.
The report, published Monday by the U.K., which is hosting the COP26 summit in Glasgow that begins Sunday, said that donor nations likely fell around $20 billion short of hitting the target in 2020, largely due to a shortfall of private financing.
The report said that modeling by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a club of wealthy countries, showed the $100 billion target could be achieved by 2023.
The shortfall is raising tensions between developed and developing nations as they plan to meet to debate how to keep the climate targets of the Paris agreement within reach.
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