Following a virtual five-hour Ministerial engagement yesterday, the G-77 and China negotiating bloc is calling on developed countries to live up to their obligation to provide climate financing to assist developing countries in realizing their ambition to grow along low carbon pathways and develop resilience.

“We are worried that the economic impact of COVID-19…will be used to weaken ambition and weaken financing. This happened before, a decade ago when we had the global financial crisis many countries in the developed world used it not to raise ambition and to not reach the pledges they already made. One of the main purposes of this event is to say notwithstanding the impact of COVID-19 we must not lose sight of the existential threat of climate change,” Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo announced during the first of four plenary sessions.

Jagdeo stressed that the event, held under the theme “Maintaining a Low Carbon Development Path towards the 2030 Agenda in the Era of COVID-19” was not geared towards debating climate change or its impact but on finding a consensus with which the disparate group of countries could approach COP26 (UN Climate Change Conference) in Glasgow next year and thereby access adequate financial support to implement mitigation measures.

The goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change he stressed were widely accepted as not enough therefore countries must be more ambitious especially in light of the disruptive nature of COVID-19.