Cop26: Rich nations must mend broken trust over climate

Affordable investment and technological innovation mean there is huge potential to make money work for the climate challenge, writes Phil Thornton – and the challenge of Cop26 is to turn that optimism into action

The challenge of Cop26 is to turn optimism into action (AFP/Getty)

When the rich nations’ negotiators pledged at the 2009 climate summit in Copenhagen to provide $100bn a year of climate finance to developing countries by 2020, this must have been seen as achievable.

Even after the shock of the global financial crisis, the annual output of the G7 group of rich nations was $31.9 trillion, or more than 300 times the pot of money needed to help poor countries.

But to precisely no one’s surprise, the UK presidency of the Cop26 climate summit, that began in earnest on Monday, admitted last week that new analysis showed the $100bn goal was unlikely to have been met in 2020 and is likely to also fall short in 2021 and 2022.