Global financial system needs mosaic of reforms to fund climate needs

Global financial system needs mosaic of reforms to fund climate needs

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt - A deal struck at the COP27 climate talks in Egypt calls for an overhaul of the post-World War Two international financial architecture that has guided three generations of development aid but is struggling to fund the needs of a warmer planet.

As the impacts of climate change worsen, delegates at the U.N. summit that ended at the weekend pressed for reform to speed up the flow of funding to developing countries - to help them cut emissions and cope with the floods or wildfires they are already experiencing.

The final COP27 deal agreed to set up a "loss and damage" fund to help poorer countries pay for the impacts of climate disaster. It also referred to the need to reform international financial institutions.

Avinash Prasad, climate adviser to the prime minister of Barbados, said the agreement reached in the early hours of Sunday had injected momentum into "a much bigger transformation of our global financial system".

It should lead to a tripling of the amount international financial institutions lend "with a clear focus on climate and sustainable development goals," Prasad said.

The push for reforms to help release more finance this year gathered pace when Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley helped