Report

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Bullying and bribery are tried and tested techniques often employed by powerful countries in international trade negotiations, where short term economic interests tend to be the order of the day. It is disturbing to see that these same motivations and tactics have now been brought into the climate change negotiations, even though governments are supposed to be working collectively to bring the planet back from the brink of disaster.

Bullying tactics include overt threats, to remove financial aid flows for example, but can also be more subtle and hidden. In general, experienced intergovernmental negotiators, especially those adept at deploying the nuances of the English language, tend to be skilled in using and abusing procedural rules and linguistic niceties to advance their national priorities. But if necessary, some are clearly prepared to resort to outright deception to achieve their goals, as this report shows.

Tactics include the use of exclusive ‘green room’ type negotiations, more...

In Climate loan sharks, the World Development Movement and the Jubilee Debt Campaign reveal that the UK is pushing $1.1 billion of climate loans, via the World Bank, on some of the poorest countries in the world.

For example Grenada’s debt is already 90 per cent of GDP, yet it is to be lent a further $22 million, over 3 per cent of the country’s GDP. Lending to such debt burdened country is at best irresponsible and at worst wilfully dangerous.

The UK, and other rich industrialised countries in the global north, owe a debt to countries in the global south as compensation for the devastating effects of climate change they have the primary responsibility for creating. A key part of this compensation is providing finance to poorer countries to help reduce the negative impacts of climate change on their lives and livelihoods. 

The report finds: 

• The UK is providing most of its climate finance for adaptation in the form of capital that can only be dispersed as loans through the World Bank’s Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR). Of the capital that will be given out as loans via the PPCR, 97 per cent comes from the UK. 
• Of the...