Climate change: G20 wants financing out of UN talks

Times of India , Thursday, December 09, 2010
Correspondent : Nitin Sethi, TNN

CANCUN: If the logjam on Kyoto and a legally binding long-term treaty were not enough to throw Cancun talks into disarray, the G20 has now stepped in to strip the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change further of any substantial worth.

The G20 has told member countries that the issues of financing climate change action be taken out of the UN talks and be handed over to them. The move could further demolish the consensus-driven process within the UN talks and potentially rob the climate change convention of any worth to the developing countries that have seen little real money despite commitments and promises by the rich countries.

The G20 has asked member countries that they allow the finance ministries under the aegis of this umbrella devise the Green Fund that the Copenhagen Accord had envisaged.

The Green Fund was notionally set up under the accord to facilitate transfer of monies from the rich countries to the poor to act against climate change. The money was meant as a form of reparation from the developed world for being the primary cause of climate change. A flow of $100 billion per year was committed in the accord starting 2020 from the developed to the developing world.

But the talks on the flow or the mechanism got stuck in 2010 with the rich countries not even putting up the $30 billion annually promised between 2010-2012.

The developing countries are keen that the fund be managed democratically under the UNFCCC where all countries get an equal vote and equal weight. The US and other countries prefer to set up the fund in a way they can control the flow as contributors to the fund. The developing countries have demanded a greater say in finalising how the funds would be spent based on their needs and priorities, if and when they materialise.

The attempt by G20 to hijack the Green Fund proposal, while the developed countries block it in the UN negotiations, would lead to details of the critical component of the expected global deal being instead finalised in a body dominated by developed country interests and then being imposed on the 193 country UNFCCC.

The developed countries' aversion to putting its money into a Green Fund that is controlled by the convention and its bodies are well known in the negotiations.

Even at Cancun, the financial mechanism has remained the least sorted out issue and the actual finance has not even been touched.

 
SOURCE : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/global-warming/Climate-change-G20-wants-financing-out-of-UN-talks/articleshow/7067544.cms
 


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