Monday, 11 November 2024.
We cited the Marshall Plan a few months ago, in an article about the 2024 IMF-World Bank spring meetings (northern hemisphere).
The reference “Finance COP” attributed to COP 29 in Azerbaijan, which begins today, November 11, appeared in a more recent article, which dealt with the lack of ambition of the NDCs, Nationally Determined Contributions, the individual action plans of countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change.
The Marshall Plan, whose official name is the European Recovery Program, was an economic aid program for Western European countries aimed at their reconstruction after the Second World War. Led by the United States, in the figure of its Secretary of State George C. Marshall - hence the popular name - it lasted from 1947 to 1951.
In terms of nominal value, according to the German Marshall Fund portal, the Marshall Plan dedicated an unprecedented amount of foreign aid, equivalent to more than US$130 billion if updated in today's dollars.
However, from a perspective of the economic wealth of nations, the same portal indicates that the value was equivalent to “5.2% of the GDP of the United States”.
This would represent US$1.4 trillion, instead of US$130 billion, considering that the GDP of the United States was around US$27.36 trillion in 2023.
On the other hand, almost US$6 trillion was indicated in the 2021 Needs Determination Report, updated every 4 years and prepared by the UNFCCC Standing Committee on Finance, as being necessary to implement developing countries' climate action plans until 2030. Not to mention the adaptation costs.
In today's world, with its 8 billion inhabitants, where there would be resources of this order of magnitude, free and available, not only for the individual needs of countries but also to help those not yet developed, with everyone increasingly suffering from floods, wildfires, hurricanes, etc. And without forgetting the heat that dries out and cracks the earth. Like earthquakes.
Well, during the last COP-28 in Dubai, the Marshall Plan was given as a reference for the “lack of ambition of the Loss & Damage Fund”, which did not even reach US$1 billion. Remember the details of the “Press Conference: UNCTAD Climate and Development 2023”.
Could all of this be part of the reason - along with geopolitical issues? - for several leaders to prefer to focus on their “institutional duties” and not attending this “Conference of the Parties” of 2024?
We will follow up and see.
Click on the image below to read the Second Report on the Determination of the Needs of Developing Country Parties from 2024.
