UN climate-change body worried over lack of funds -Governance Now

UN climate-change body worried over lack of funds

Not enough funding available for adaptation and mitigation programmes, says UNFCCC

Neha Sethi | September 8, 2010

As the countdown for the climate meet in Cancun this year has begun, Christiana Figueres, the newly-appointed executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) said that the money available for climate change adaptation is completely insufficient.

Talking to reporters in New Delhi on Wednesday, the UN climate chief said that she was confident that the industrialised nations would be able to provide transparency to the sourcing of the 30 billion dollars that were committed for adaptation and mitigation, by the time they get to Cancun.

“There has to be realisation that this funding will be available but to have expectation of 100 percent additionality on those funds might not be met,” she said when asked about expectations of developing countries.

She added that expectation of 50-50 mitigation and adaptation may not be the case either. “But the bottom line is that fast track funding needs to be seen as a learning ground for both developing and industrialised countries of what long term financing will eventually be,” Figueres added.

On the issue of technology transfer, the executive secretary said that the governments around the world are looking at a technology mechanism which would develop technology co-operation among all countries. “There is a lot of importance of technology co-operation for India, given (its) targets on renewable energy and energy efficiency and solid waste to energy.”

Figueres said that one of the problems during the Copenhagen summit was that there was a top-down decision approach. “And that definitely erodes trust so there is commitment to transparency and to representation and to make sure that every interest group has a self-appointed representative,” she added.

She said that while Copenhagen was ‘head of state’ meeting but Cancun is a 'ministerial' meeting.

The UN climate chief, while talking of her own appointment, said that choosing her as the new secretary general was the recognition of the increasing role that developing countries have in the negotiations.

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