LDC5 High-level Thematic Round Table 5: Addressing climate change and supporting the environment

 

 

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Climate change is a global challenge, but its negative impact affects some countries more than others.

Even though the least developed countries (LDCs) account for less than four per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, LDCs are on the front line of the climate crisis.

Climate change is merciless and unfair. LDCs will pay a high price for the emissions they did not produce.

For instance, climate change is already disrupting water availability in some countries. This reduces productivity of the sector that is key for the livelihoods of most people in LDCs: agriculture.

It puts many LDCs into a trade-off between the present and the future. Climate change mitigation and adaptation requires resources.

But at the same time, these resources are needed today to invest in infrastructure development and actions to accelerate development progress.

UNCTAD believes in the need for “green” structural transformation: a development framework that reconciles socio-economic development with environmental goals.

As the world eagerly tries to accelerate its transition towards a low-carbon economy, LDCs need support to achieve it.

This means finding a balance between three objectives:

1. Financing climate action versus actions to accelerate development progress;
2. Deploying more traditional and mature technologies to foster their development; and
3. Connecting to emerging “greener” sectors that could be an opportunity for the future.

For instance, global demand will increase for strategic materials abundant in many LDCs, such as lithium, cobalt, rare earths, silver and copper. However, this time, we need to do it better and ensure LDCs can also process these materials and increase value added. It should not turn into another commodity boom that entrenches LDCs in their current state of commodity dependence.

Naturally, LDCs are active actors in this process. They have significant scope to accelerate the transition through “green” industrial policies. They can also revamp efforts towards domestic resource mobilization, cost-effective investments in human and physical capital and institutional capacity development.

And lastly, we need a “just transition” towards a low-carbon economy. This calls for meaningful international support for LDCs, especially for:

1. Adequate development and climate adaptation finance. There is a component of scale as well as conditions. Currently, LDCs spend about five times more on debt servicing than on climate adaptation every year. This undermines their capacity to invest in climate action.
2. Effective technology transfer to spur the adoption of low-carbon technologies. This needs to be coupled with technical assistance to foster technological upgrading and domestication; and
3. Strengthening LDCs’ institutional capacities.

And of course, UNCTAD will continue supporting the LDCs on their journey towards a low carbon future.

I thank you for your attention.