How Do You Finance Climate Projects in a Currency Crisis?
The countries that most need infrastructure to cope with climate change are struggling to pay for food. There’s a better way to draw in the capital they need.
Host Egypt is a good example of what’s wrong with financing necessary climate projects.
Photographer: Islam Safwat/BloombergDelegates at the United Nations COP27 climate conference this month have been seeking to understand why the world is failing to raise the cash needed for emerging countries to prepare for climate change. The answers are visible all around them.
Egypt — home to Sharm el-Sheikh, the resort town hosting the event — last month devalued its currency, bringing the pound’s decline this year to nearly 36%. Bailout programs with the International Monetary Fund and Gulf monarchies over the past decade have amounted to nearly $130 billion, equivalent to a third of national income. Forget wind farms and desalination plants. Egypt barely has enough cash to pay for its wheat imports.