The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, promised this Monday at the 26th United Nations Climate Conference (COP26), in Glasgow, an additional 4.3 billion euros in funding for vulnerable countries.
Speaking at the World Leaders’ Summit, the European leader stressed the importance of mobilizing funding to support vulnerable countries to adapt and move towards renewable energy.
Developed countries have been criticized for not meeting the goal of mobilizing $100 billion a year starting in 2020, an amount not expected to be reached until 2023.
In addition to the $27 billion mobilized in 2020 for adaptation measures, the European Commission president announced an additional $5 billion by 2027 from the EU budget, and a doubling of funding for biodiversity, especially in vulnerable countries.
“Team Europe is already the largest provider of climate finance. Almost half of our funding is for adaptation,” she stressed.
The president of the EU executive was speaking at a session of open statements to all heads of state or heads of government present in Glasgow about their goals and plans to combat environmental change.
The speeches, which started about an hour late and are running over the three minutes scheduled, are being held in parallel in two rooms and will continue until Tuesday.
More than 120 political leaders and thousands of experts, activists, and public decision-makers are meeting until November 12 in Glasgow, Scotland, at the 26th United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference (COP26) to update countries on their contributions to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
The COP26 takes place six years after the Paris Agreement, which set the goal of limiting the increase in the global average temperature between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Despite the commitments made, greenhouse gas concentrations reached record levels in 2020, even with the economic slowdown caused by the covid-19 pandemic, according to the UN, which estimates that at the current rate of emissions, temperatures will be 2.7 ºC higher by the end of the century.
