Governments and corporations are failing to provide enough money to address global warming, with potentially disastrous consequences for communities that contributed least to the problem, the top U.N. climate official said Thursday.
Simon Stiell, executive secretary of U.N. Climate Change, described an “epidemic of underinvestment” across Africa in a speech to officials in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, where he called for rapid progress to cut planet-warming emissions and a surge of funding for adaptation projects.
“It’s time to flip the script. From potential climate tipping points to exponential changes in business, investment, and growth,” Stiell said at the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment, according to prepared remarks.
His speech comes as countries wrangle over a new target for climate cash ahead of U.N. climate talks in mid-November, and as nations across Africa cope with severe flooding, heat, drought and crippling debt.
