UK urged to take lead in helping poor countries fund climate action
联合国敦促英国积极带头，为贫穷国家气候治理提供援助
Boris Johnson’s government must take the lead in giving poor countries access to the finance they need to tackle the climate crisis, to make vital climate talks a success, the UN’s development chief has said.
联合国开发计划署署长表示，英国鲍里斯·约翰逊政府必须积极带头，给予贫穷国家解决气候危机所需要的资金支持，以实现在重要气候谈判中达成的共识。
Ministers from around the world will meet virtually this week at a conference hosted by the UK to discuss the needs of developing nations struggling to cut their greenhouse gas emissions, as their economies have been left reeling by the Covid pandemic.
各国部长将于本周参加由英国主持召开的视频会议，探讨在疫情阻滞经济发展的背景下，各发展中国家减少温室气体排放的困境。
Achim Steiner, the administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), urged governments to show the same will to tackle climate breakdown as they were showing with the recovery from the pandemic.
联合国开发计划署署长阿希姆·施泰纳敦促各国政府应拿出应对疫情恢复的决心，来应对气候问危机时。
He said: “We need to arrive at a mindset like the Marshall plan, a bigger vision that we need to recover [from Covid-19] together, a new investment paradigm for a global economy, not an aid or charity paradigm.”
他表示：“我们要达成向马歇尔计划那样的理念，用更宏远的视角来指导疫情的恢复，用新的投资范式来发展全球经济，而不是援助或者慈善的范式。”
Cop26 comes at a crucial time, as developing countries face key decisions on how to help their economies recover from the Covid crisis. Many are under pressure to continue with fossil fuels, but investments now in coal, oil or other high-carbon infrastructure will lock in high emissions for decades to come.
第26届联合国气候变化大会的召开正值关键时刻。就如何从疫情危机中恢复经济而言，发展中国家面临关键抉择。许多国家仍然不得不继续使用化石燃料，然而，对煤炭、石油以及其它含碳量高的基础设施的投资意味着在未来的几十年里，温室气体的排放量仍将居高不下。
“It is not in the interests of industrialised countries to wait another year [to assist investment],” Steiner said. “Global climate action is dependent on being able to solve the financial challenges and fiscal dilemma [over investing in fossil fuels or clean energy] that countries will be confronted with at Glasgow.”
“迟迟不展开投资协助是不符合工业化国家的利益的，” 施泰纳表示。“在即将到来的格拉斯哥会议上，全球气候行动取决于我们解决一些国家所面临的经济挑战以及（投资化石燃料还是清洁能源）这一财政困境的能力。”
Poor countries are already concerned that a longstanding promise, made in 2009, that rich countries would ensure flows of $100bn (£72bn) a year to the developing world by 2020, to help countries cut emissions and cope with the impacts of climate breakdown, has not been met.
2009年富裕国家曾做出承诺，将保证到2020年之前每年为发展中国家提供1000亿美元（720亿英镑）的资金流，以帮助其减少温室气体的排放并应对气候危机的影响，然而贫困国家已经表现出担心，认为这个承诺并未兑现。
Debt repayment costs are also crippling developing economies. The World Bank recently estimated that 2.5% of this year’s debt service payments for poor countries, amounting to about $28bn, would be enough to vaccinate 2 billion people in the poor world.
债务偿还也正在压垮发展中国家经济体。世界银行最近估计，今年贫穷国家债务偿还量的2.5%高达280亿美元，这足够支付为贫穷国家20亿人口接种疫苗的费用。
The UN is pushing for debt suspension or forgiveness for some of the worst-hit economies. Forthcoming research by the UNDP has found that 72 vulnerable countries are facing $600bn in debt service payments from 2021 to 2025. Of these, 23 countries with $387bn in debt payments owed are not covered by existing debt relief programmes.
对于一些经济受到疫情重创的经济体，联合国正在推动债务延期以及债务豁免计划。联合国开发计划署即将完成的研究发现，有72个脆弱国家从2021年至2015年将面临6000亿美元的债务偿还量，其中有23个国家面临3870亿美元的债务偿还，然而却没有被包括进现行的债务豁免项目中。
Separately , green campaigners have written to the UK government ahead of this week’s ministerial meeting to call for the overseas aid budget to be restored, warning that failure to do so would undermine the UK’s credibility as hosts of Cop26.
另外，在本周部长级会议举办之际，绿色运动组织者向英国政府呼吁恢复其海外援助预算，并警告说，若不这样做的话，将有损英国作为第26届联合国气候变化大会东道国的信誉。
