Standard Chartered’s Just in Time report investigating the cost and socioeconomic implications of a just transition revealed that almost $95tr of financing is needed to help emerging and developing nations to meet their long-term climate goals.

Now, José Viñals, the group chairman of Standard Chartered has expanded on the theme in a paper for the Grantham Research Institute, pointing out that although science and innovation have a part to play in making a sustainable planet, solidarity is equally important and nations must work better together to reach the ultimate shared goal of net-zero carbon emissions.

However, there are several difficult areas in this simple sounding desire with emerging and developing countries including India and China accusing ‘richer’ nations of acting inequitably by their historical actions in causing the climate crisis then shifting the burden of transitioning to more sustainable models onto emerging markets.

Viñals believes that reconciling these issues could be achieved by both the public and the private sectors fulfilling the financing pledges they have already made ahead of COP27. The first step, he outlines is to facilitate more dialogue and understanding between banks and emerging and developing markets. It is necessary to convince investors that the returns will be as good as the green elements. According to Standard Chartered’s $50 Trillion Question study, 88 per cent of investors revealed that investments in emerging and developing markets matched or outperformed developed markets between 2017 and 2020. Despite this, the world’s top 300 investment firms have just 2, 3 and 5 per cent of their investments in the Middle East, Africa and South America respectively.

Share Story: