With billions of dollars expected to flow into climate change initiatives across the globe, Berlin-based Transparency International (TI), at the recent Group-20 summit, advocated a transparent disbursement of public funds.
“The G-20 is asking for a lot of projects to have green components because we are all aware that there is a climate change issue. Now, these green components need to be transparent. Every time you have a global trend, you have money. And bigger the trend, bigger the money, because you have a lot of investors,” Mr Francois Valerian, Head of Private Sector Programme, TI, told a group of visiting journalists.
Climate change
Mr Valerian said climate change was perhaps the most complex global governance challenge the world had ever faced. The global response to climate change, he said, would demand unprecedented international cooperation, deep economic transformation and resource transfers on a significant scale.
“So I have to mention those three points---governance, regulation and prevention. Now we are also in the global effort that has to be undertaken to fight corruption, which we would like to see more in the G20 documents,” Mr Valerian said. He added that many of the institutions, governance processes and initiatives designed to mitigate and adapt to climate change were vulnerable to a broad range of corruption risks. They ranged from undue influence on policies and regulations, to misallocation of funds and manipulation of markets, reporting and verification mechanisms. TI comes out with the popular global Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI).
Fast-track disbursements
“At a time when massive stimulus packages, fast–track disbursements of public funds and attempts to secure peace are being implemented around the world, it is essential to identify where corruption blocks good governance and accountability, in order to break its corrosive cycles,” said Ms Huguette Labelle, Chairperson, TI.
TI had at the G-20 summit earlier taken initiatives to promote transparency among countries in order to clamp down on so-called tax havens. In March 2009, Liechtenstein had agreed to revise its easy-going laws on secret bank accounts and to cooperate with foreign investigators trying to locate tax evaders. Other countries such as Singapore, Switzerland, Austria, Andorra and Monaco followed suit. The European Union is pushing for an ultimatum until March 2010, after which non-cooperative states will face sanctions.
