There will be no legally binding agreement at the Paris Climate Summit that is at present taking place if an agreement on finance that is acceptable to the developing countries cannot be reached. Two aspects of this issue need to be considered.
At the Climate Summit in Copenhagen in 2009, financing adaptation and mitigation measures to contain and then hopefully reverse the current direction of climate change was a hugely contentious issue. However, at the last moment a financial agreement was arrived at wherein the industrialised countries committed to provide US$30 billion as ‘fast-start’ financial assistance and to give US$100 billion a year in additional climate finance from 2020 onwards.
In 1970, by way of a United Nations resolution, the developed countries promised to provide 0.7% of their GDP as official development assistance to developing countries, and notwithstanding all the campaigns over the years (some seeking to name and shame the countries that have not fulfilled the commitment) to
