Belize is an idyllic country surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and rainforests. But it expressed frustration that developing nations cannot fulfill promises to provide money dedicated to preserving such beauty.

At least $100 billion is required to save the rainforests, which are natural carbon dioxide vacuums. And countries and companies are asked to contribute even more to hasten the switch to renewable energy — on top of the billions host countries need to insulate themselves from the effects of climate change, such as rising tides and eroding beaches. The United States wants the private sector more involved — especially those big polluters making huge profits. 

“Maintaining faith, patience and hope is difficult,” said Kenrick Williams, the manager of sustainable development and climate change for Belize. “We need real investments on the ground now and are looking for investors willing to take that risk. We fight against traditional markets and traditional investors.”

The U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change recently met in Bonn, Germany, where 192 nations met to discuss their path to net-zero — the precursor to COP28 in Dubai in December.  But the talks largely fell flat, with a key Pakistani committee chair calling participants “a class of primary school” students. Indeed, diplomats demanding more decisive action felt dejected.

The developed world prospered from the Industrial Revolution — growth that took decades with environmental regulations slow to catch up. But that came at the expense of emerging nations, which eventually witnessed rising temperatures, droughts and famine. 

Early in the climate negotiations, the more affluent countries promised to give developing ones $100 billion — money that never materialized. And at last year’s global climate talks, negotiators agreed to set up a “loss and damage fund” to compensate the nations most affected by global warming. Again, diplomats provided few details, leaving the world’s poorest countries even more exasperated.

The good news is that the International Energy Agency said in its 2023 World Energy Outlook that countries and companies will invest $1.7 trillion into clean energy, including nuclear power, this year. But these figures must triple by 2030 to keep the goals of the Paris climate agreement alive. Meanwhile, the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change said emerging nations require new infrastructure — between $160 billion and $340 billion by 2030 and $315 billion and $565 billion by 2050.

The aim of the Paris agreement is climate neutrality by 2050 — to ensure that emissions and removals offset each other. Is this doable?

Tropical rainforests are critical assets, which have offset 9 gigatons of carbon dioxide between 2005 and today. These reductions are available to countries, corporations and consumers as credits so the rainforest nations don’t cut down their trees. But they aren’t in high demand, devaluing the credits — worth far less than timber or agriculture.

But not all of the credits are alike.

The voluntary carbon market is embattled and hammered for exaggerating the trees it saves. However, the United Nations has scrutinized and verified an emerging financial vehicle — assets issued by host countries called “sovereign carbon credits.” Critically, that ensures that the money gets distributed to the rainforest nations preserving trees.

For example, Kenya wants to be among the first nations to sell sovereign credits, following Belize, Gabon and Honduras. But getting to that point is an exhaustive process that many countries think will pay off.

Others are worn down and may settle for easy money. Papua New Guinea said it won’t attend COP28 in Dubai because of broken financial promises and the shortage of funds to save rainforests. That lingering paradox will probably impede carbon neutrality goals, raising the heat index at this year’s climate conference in Bonn.