BAKU, Nov 17, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Trillions of dollars are needed to make poorer
nations more resilient to climate change, and studies have estimated that
every $1 invested today will save at least $4 in future.

So why is it so hard to raise this money, and what are some of the innovative
ways of going about it?

- Wind over walls -

Developing countries, excluding China, will need $1 trillion a year by 2030
in outside help to reduce their carbon footprint and adapt to a warming
planet, according to UN-commissioned experts.

This money could come from foreign governments, big lending institutions like
the World Bank, or the private sector.

But some projects attract money more easily than others, said Avinash
Persaud, special climate adviser to the president of the Inter-American
Development Bank, a lender for Latin American and Caribbean nations.

For example, the private sector likes building solar farms and wind turbines
because there's a return on investment when people buy the electricity.

But investors are much less interested in building defensive sea walls that
generate no revenue, said Persaud, who hails from Barbados, and once advised
the Caribbean nation's Prime Minister Mia Mottley.

"Unfortunately, there's no magic in finance. And so that does require a lot
of public money," he told AFP on the sidelines of the UN COP29 climate summit
in Azerbaijan.

- Political jitters -

But governments are limited in the amount they can borrow, he said, and
reluctant to dip into their budgets for climate adaptation in poorer nations.

In the European Union, which is the largest contributor to international
climate finance, major donors face political and economic pressures at home.

Meanwhile, newly-elected Donald Trump has threatened to pull the US, the
world's largest economy, out of global cooperation on climate action.

This has posed enormous challenges at COP29, where nations are no closer to
striking a long-sought deal to raise more money for developing countries.

"You're seeing the political landscape -- governments are not getting elected
to raise their aid budgets and send more money abroad," said Persaud.

- Close the gap -

A defensive sea wall, for example, might not pay off for decades, making it
difficult for debt-strapped countries to borrow enough money at reasonable
rates to build it in the first place.

Persaud said development banks could help bring down the cost of borrowing,
while new taxes on polluting industries like global shipping and coal, oil
and gas could raise new money.

Such "innovative" schemes already exist, he said: in the United States, $0.09
of every barrel of oil goes into a fund to cover the cost of cleaning up a
spill.

"Well, we're seeing a spill in the atmosphere... and maybe if we spread these
things, make them global across fossil fuels, we could raise the money we
need."

This could help poorer nations recover from disaster -- known in UN parlance
as "loss and damage" -- something few investors go near, he said.

"If we can raise these levees -- the solidarity levees -- here and there, for
those things that can't be funded any other way, then we can close that gap,"
he said.

- 'Science into finance' -

Persaud conceded "none of this is easy".

"Raising the money is hard. Spending it well is hard. Getting it to the the
people who need it most is hard," he said.

But $1 trillion was a realistic ask if underpinned by $300 billion in public
finance -- three times the existing pledge, he said.

Without "translating the science into finance", developing countries could
not take the action necessary to help curb rises in global temperatures.

"If we don't get one, we don't get the other," he said.