OTTAWA — The Summit for a New Global Financial Pact saw welcomed engagement from low and middle income countries and delivered some important progress, but which ultimately lacked the scale and speed of concrete action needed.

Canada made some encouraging moves on supporting the climate transition including the launch of the Just Transition Energy Partnership alongside Senegal and the international partners group comprising France, Germany, the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada. The JETP is aimed at supporting Senegal’s efforts to achieve universal access to energy and consolidate a low-carbon, resilient and sustainable energy system.

“It was good to see that the Summit put an emphasis on how rich countries can continue sharing their Special Drawing Rights (SDR) to support vulnerable countries to invest in climate change mitigation and adaptation and their ongoing pandemic recovery efforts,” said Elise Legault, ONE Canada Director. “However the discussion left us no closer to the solution than before the Summit itself. We’ve seen Canada step up to the plate channeling about 18% of its SDRs towards this effort, but a larger share of 22% has flowed to Ukraine, leaving development and climate adaptation for the African continent hanging. We have no clear roadmap for how climate finance will be accelerated or how global goals will be met.”

With the right support, investments and policies, Africa has the potential to revolutionize the global green economy by leveraging reserves of critical minerals to produce renewable energy, significant solar generation potential and ecosystems capable of sequestering large amounts of carbon – all of which compliment Canada’s engagement efforts in critical minerals development and the energy transition.

Despite the positive involvement of a significant number of leaders from middle and low income countries – including President Bola Tinabalu of Nigeria, President Willima Ruto of Kenya, President Macky Sall of Senegal and Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados, campaigners from the global south voiced concerns about the lack of concrete action agreed at the summit.

“The summit shows there are undeniably good intentions among many key global actors to tackle climate change, poverty and injustice. But the truth is that good intentions alone will not feed the starving, will not prevent further climate disaster or pay off our debts. We have seen some new money on the table – but not enough to deal with the scale of challenges we are facing,” said Adenike Oladosu, ONE Campaign champion and Nigerian climate activist. “More promises cannot solve the climate crisis but rather acting on those promises is where the real action lies. What will make this summit a success is the real action that follows afterwards. If that action doesn’t come, we will still be left wondering whether global leaders will ever treat the threat from climate change and extreme poverty with the same urgency as people and families who have to deal with them on a daily basis.”

Technical Notes to editors

1. Over the course of the two-day summit, leaders committed to important steps to help increase the financing available to help the world’s poorest countries to respond to the threats posed by climate change and tackle extreme poverty – including:

• An increase in the amount of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) being re-channelled to the world’s poorest countries – including an increase from $40 billion to $60 billion in SDRs that can be reallocated through the IMF. (ONE’s updated SDR tracker shows the latest commitments)
• Agreement by many key actors, including the UK, US, France and the World Bank on pause clauses on debt repayments to help low income countries that have been affected by natural disasters (a position ONE campaigned for the World Bank to adopt during COVID-19). Canada also indicated vocal support.
• Further support for reform of the World Bank and other global financial institutions, including calls to unlock an additional $200bn over the next decade from the MDBs.

2. The summit failed to deliver the step change in new investment and financing needed to counter climate change and build climate resilient development, in particular failing to:

• Meet the $100billion target for rechannelling SDRs (excluding pledges that cannot currently be met)
• Provide clarity on whether they will finally reach the annual $100 billion climate finance target first promised in 2009
• Provide a clear timeline for World Bank reforms and to triple loans and grants by 2030
• Agree new taxes to help raise funding for low income countries affected by climate change.

3. For more information, see our data dives:

• On Special Drawing Rights including our latest intel tracking pledges and what has gone to countries.
• On how to reform the Multilateral Development Banks, including a tool to see how much could be unlocked from the World Bank, and tracking shareholders positions.
• On the debt crisis and a plan to tackle it.