New Zealand on Monday (10/18/2021) promised to quadruple its international assistance in tackling climate change, acknowledging that its response to the global challenge was not enough.
In Glasgow, Scotland, as world officials prepare for COP26, the UN summit on global warming, Prime Minister Jacinta Ardern announced in Wellington that the budget for the issue would reach $ 930 million over the next four years.
At least half of that funding will go to sea-rising Pacific islands, Artern said.
“We need to be at the forefront of climate change for the Pacific family and neighbors and increase our support for those who need our support,” he said in a statement.
The Prime Minister explained that the money would help communities to cope with the damage caused by storms, sea level rise and extreme events such as floods and droughts.
The Climate Action Tracker website says New Zealand’s current climate aid budget is “essentially inadequate” and that the country’s overall response to global warming is “overall inadequate”.
The increased funding from 2022 to 2025 will place New Zealand’s individual contribution to the global climate fund at the same level as Britain.
James Shaw, the minister responsible for climate change, said rich countries like New Zealand have a duty to help countries affected by global warming. “Our response over the last 30 years has not been adequate to the extent of the challenge,” Shaw told Radio New Zealand.
Although Wellington acknowledged that it had “started too late”, he assured that his country’s climate policies were comparable to other countries with similar incomes.
gs (afp, The New Zealand Herald)
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