Feds Gave Over $144 Million to International Organizations for Climate Change Programs

Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault speaks after agreements were adopted during the plenary at the tail end of the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in Montreal, Que., on Dec. 19, 2022. Andrej Ivanov/AFP via Getty Images

The federal government has given over $144 million to international organizations, including the United Nations, “for the purpose of fighting climate change” since 2017.

“Canada’s International Climate Finance Program aims to support low and middle-income countries already affected by climate change in their transition to sustainable, low-carbon, climate-resilient, nature-positive and inclusive development,” states the Jan. 29 response from Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) to Conservative MP Cheryl Gallant’s Inquiry of Ministry submitted Dec. 1 last year.

Ms. Gallant asked ECCC what funding Ottawa has provided to the U.N. and other international organizations for climate-related efforts since Jan. 1, 2016. She asked for the total amount given as well as the details of each funding agreement, including the date, recipient, purpose, amount, and what had been done “to ensure the money was spent appropriately.”

ECCC data shows a total of $144,779,591 has been spent to date since the 2017–18 fiscal year, when the first funding was given. The largest payout was $44,077,498 in fiscal 2022–23, while $18,270,221 has been paid out so far in the current fiscal year, which ends March 31.

Notable expenditures include three separate payments of $2.5 million, $11 million, and $4 million given to the World Bank in March 2023 and two separate payments of just over $13 million each given to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 2017 and 2020.

The $11 million given to the World Bank last March went toward the Partnership for Market Implementation, which helps countries implement carbon pricing policies and systems and increase their ability to participate in international carbon markets.

The $4 million went toward the Climate Risk and Early Warning Systems (CREWS) initiative. In September 2022, Canada announced $10 million in funding over four years for the initiative. CREWS aims to “improve emergency preparedness in developing countries, particularly the small island developing states.”

The $2.5 million in funding was for the World Bank’s Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP). ESMAP aims to help low- and middle-income nations increase capacity to achieve “environmentally sustainable energy solutions for poverty reduction and economic growth.”

The $13 million given to the UNEP in 2017 was a grant for implementation of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. The $13 million given in 2020 was Canada’s contributions to the Environment Fund, the UNEP’s core financial fund, for the period 2019–20 to 2022–23.

According to response to the Inquiry of Ministry, to ensure Canada’s funding aligns with its objectives, ECCC and Global Affairs Canada assess outcomes based on three indicators. One is the reduction or avoidance of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Another is the number of people in developing nations who benefited from the financing. The third is the amount of private investment stimulated by public sector investments.

ECCC’s climate finance webpage shows that Canada’s $2.65 billion climate finance commitment (2015–21) has “reduced or avoided over 223.7 megatonnes of GHG emissions, provided 8.04 million people with increased resilience to climate change, and established 155 projects supporting developing countries to mitigate and adapt to climate change.” A bar chart shows that private finance has been mobilized each year since 2017 but does not provide specific figures.

Global Spending

The U.N. Paris Agreement, a legally binding treaty, was signed in 2016 by 194 member countries including Canada, along with the European Union, to “substantially reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.” Global spending on climate-related projects markedly surged following this accord.

According to the non-profit Climate Policy Initiative (CPI), governments around the world provided an annual average of nearly US$1.3 trillion in 2021–22 to climate mitigation and adaptation projects. This was almost double the US$653 billion figure in 2019–’20 and far exceeded the US$364 billion in 2011–12, the CPI reported.

Despite this funding influx, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has identified 2023 as “the world’s warmest year on record, by far.” The average global temperature for 2023 exceeded the pre-industrial era (1850–1900) average by 2.43 degrees F (1.35 degrees C), the NOAA said in a Jan. 12 news release.