South Africa's president Cyril Ramaphosa has welcomed the setting up of a new loss and damage fund at the Cop 28 UN climate summit, but he has also called for international banking reform and debt relief to enable funding for developing countries on a far bigger scale.
If the fund it is "to effectively support those countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, we need to mobilise funding on a far greater scale", Ramaphosa said.
It is "a serious concern" that developed countries' commitments have not been met and very little funding has been channelled through the financial mechanisms of the UN climate body the UNFCCC, including the Green Climate Fund and the Adaptation Fund, he added.
"Securing ambitious funding for the newly launched loss and damage fund presents a clear opportunity for a course correction," he said.
Multilateral development banks need to be "substantively" reformed so that they can provide a significant and increased share of new investments in climate-resilient and low-emissions growth, and debt reform needs to be central in the finance discussions, according to Ramaphosa.
"Innovative financing instruments, such as special drawing rights are needed to ensure that funding does not increase the debt burden of countries that are already struggling to service their debt," he said.
There can be no substitute for public finance to help developing economy countries build climate resilience, Ramaphosa stressed. "While there is much focus on scaling climate funding through mobilising private sector finance, we must also ensure that public sector projects have access to the adequate levels of affordable finance."
Finance flows need to be guided by the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, he said. "We need to avoid an untenable situation where the burden of responsibility for financing climate action is transferred to developing economies, which have contributed the least towards the global carbon stock."
Unilateral and coercive trade-distorting measures put in place under the guise of implementing the Paris climate agreement are unacceptable, Ramaphosa said. These include carbon border taxes that reverse financial flows from developing to developed countries and transfer the burden of climate action to the most vulnerable, he said.
Access to climate change adaptation and mitigation technologies should not be commercially driven but seen as a global public good, Ramaphosa said. "There needs to be financial support for technological innovation in developing economies and a willingness by investors to offer off-take agreements that will support local industrial production."
Significantly scaled-up grant-based support is needed for just energy transitions, recognising that there can be no one-size-fits-all formula for the transition away from fossil fuels, the president said, thereby restating a demand he made at last year's Cop 27 climate summit.
"Workers and communities currently dependent on the fossil fuel value chain need viable alternative livelihoods. They cannot live on promises," he said.
Ramaphosa's comments echo other African leaders' demands that were outlined in the Nairobi declaration issued at the inaugural Africa Climate Summit in Kenya in September.
