Belize is a Small Island Developing State (SIDS) located in the Caribbean, which is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Its greenhouse gas emissions are negligible, and the country acts as a carbon sink thanks to its immense natural resources. As a member of the High Ambition Coalition, it has developed several long-term low emissions strategies to align its finance flows with Article 2.1(c) of the Paris Agreement.
However, to date there has been no systematic attempt to assess the country’s public and private finance flows against their alignment with this long-term goal. This also prevents comparison of progress on 2.1(c) between rich, high-emitting countries and poorer, low-emitting signatories.
This report from the Finance Working Group of the independent Global Stocktake (iGST) assesses the climate-consistency of Belize’s public and private finance flows. Central to this is the Climate Finance Strategy of Belize (2021), which provides an indicative plan of action towards mobilising climate finance until 2026. Proposed actions build on several successful climate finance instruments, including Belize’s national conservation trust PACT, the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility, or the eyebrow raising “debt-for-nature” swap.
The Government of Belize’s new Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) system will track progress against 2.1(c). If successful, it will help mobilise new sources of private climate finance and redirect misaligned flows of public finance, including fossil fuel subsidies and subsidised loans to the cattle export industry.
