BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE
A briefing paper published today November, 21, 2011 by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), outlines three steps to ensure developed countries meet their agreed commitments to help poorer nations adapt to climate change.
Coming one week ahead of the Durban climate change conference where nearly 200 governments will meet to negotiate further action to address climate change, the paper analyses the five key promises rich countries have already made but finds these nations have yet to show how they can meet these commitments.
According to a press release from the IIED, in 2009, developed nations promised US$30 billion between 2010 and 2012, and US$100 billion a year by 2020 to enable developing nations adapt to climate change and reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases.
But although at last year’s UN climate change conference in Cancun, nations reiterated the pledges and specified that funding for adaptation should be adequate, fairly shared between donors, balanced with funding for mitigation, targeted on a needs basis, and governed well, the new analysis shows that they are not being met.
This, according to the paper, means that poor countries will find it harder to adapt to climate change.
It is however not a hopeless case for developing countries, as the briefing proposes three ways negotiators who gather in Durban next week can correct the situation.
Firstly, it suggests the adoption by developed countries, of a transparent, centralised accounting system, secondly establishing funding sources based on international trade and defining annual targets to scale up the total funding for adaptation.
“Money has yet to flow to meet even the most urgent adaptation needs of the Least Developed Countries,” says author David Ciplet of Brown University in the United States.
He adds that “Without adequate and predictable funding, developing countries most vulnerable to climate change cannot respond effectively,” saying “All of the talk about adaptation in Cancun will mean little unless reliable funding sources are established in Durban.”
A briefing paper published today November, 21, 2011 by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), outlines three steps to ensure developed countries meet their agreed commitments to help poorer nations adapt to climate change.
Coming one week ahead of the Durban climate change conference where nearly 200 governments will meet to negotiate further action to address climate change, the paper analyses the five key promises rich countries have already made but finds these nations have yet to show how they can meet these commitments.
According to a press release from the IIED, in 2009, developed nations promised US$30 billion between 2010 and 2012, and US$100 billion a year by 2020 to enable developing nations adapt to climate change and reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases.
But although at last year’s UN climate change conference in Cancun, nations reiterated the pledges and specified that funding for adaptation should be adequate, fairly shared between donors, balanced with funding for mitigation, targeted on a needs basis, and governed well, the new analysis shows that they are not being met.
This, according to the paper, means that poor countries will find it harder to adapt to climate change.
It is however not a hopeless case for developing countries, as the briefing proposes three ways negotiators who gather in Durban next week can correct the situation.
Firstly, it suggests the adoption by developed countries, of a transparent, centralised accounting system, secondly establishing funding sources based on international trade and defining annual targets to scale up the total funding for adaptation.
“Money has yet to flow to meet even the most urgent adaptation needs of the Least Developed Countries,” says author David Ciplet of Brown University in the United States.
He adds that “Without adequate and predictable funding, developing countries most vulnerable to climate change cannot respond effectively,” saying “All of the talk about adaptation in Cancun will mean little unless reliable funding sources are established in Durban.”
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