Brussels, 08/11/2010 (Agence Europe) - $100 billion per year by 2020 to help poorer countries cope with climate change is possible by combining new sources of public and private funding. This was confirmed in the report published on Friday 5 November by the UN High Level Advisory Group on Climate Change Finance. Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard and a number of environmentalist NGOs welcomed what they hailed as excellent news, though Friends of the Earth International (FoEI), wary of the expansion of carbon markets, expressed reservations.
“The report confirms that combining public and private funds is key to reaching the Copenhagen Accord's goal. As the report points out, the potential for new and innovative sources of revenue crucially depends on the future carbon price and the proportion of emission allowances that is auctioned,” Hedegaard said. On behalf of the Commission, she reiterated that “at least half of the revenues from the auctioning of EU emission allowances should be used to finance climate action, including in developing countries”. Mobilising $100 billion per year by 2020, the report shows, can be done, and indeed “not investing this money will turn out to be more expensive”, the commissioner points out.
Greenpeace says the report clearly shows that “it is both technically feasible and politically possible for governments to raise substantial amounts of money for climate action from new mechanisms, such as pricing emissions from international air travel and shipping” and removing subsidies for fossil fuels and using these sums for action on global warming - and this, without governments having to raid existing aid programmes. “Developed countries now have no excuse to delay meeting their promise. It is now time for developed country governments to come up with a clear workplan and timeline for implementing a suite of sources of finance that can meet the long-term need,” said Steve Herz of Greenpeace International.
FoEI, however, was critical that the report downplayed the role that public finance “can and must play” in providing aid to developing countries, while placing “blind faith in the capacity of highly volatile and unreliable carbon price signals to induce long-term investment in low-carbon energy production”. It would be better for developed countries to make good on their pledge in making $30 billion in fast-track funding available between 2010 and 2012 to allow developing countries to adapt agricultural production and water management systems to the imminent ravages of climate change, FoEI points out. (A.N./transl.rt)