One of the big downsides of this month's COP26 summit was said to be the failure of the developed world to deliver the $100 billion-a-year target for climate change finance. For many activists, it reflects a lack of contrition among rich countries for their historic responsibility for climate change, and it gives countries with fast-growing emissions like India an excuse to do nothing. From my perspective, it is a learning point. What it says to me is that climate finance is actually very difficult. 79% of the funds pledged to date have come in the form of loans, rather than grants. Finding bankable, projects which deliver both a climate impact and a return on capital is not easy. Doing it in countries which are already burdened with debt, which suffer from governance issues, and which have unstable currencies is close to impossible. If the $100 billion-a-year target had been reached, I suspect that there would now be concerns that climate change had precipitated a debt crisis.
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