By Jeff Coelho and Valerie Volcovici | Wed., August 24, 11:48 AM | Comments ( 1 )
A Swiss Post clerk exchanges Swiss francs into euros at a counter in a post office in Bern on August 8, 2011. REUTERS/Pascal Lauener
By Jeff Cohelo and Valerie Volcovici
If another recession hits, will rich countries forgo any of the $100 billion annually in climate aid they promised to developing countries by 2020?
And what would this mean for the world’s poorest nations, many of which are on the frontlines of climate change and need the funding to help them battle severe drought and flooding?
Under the Copenhagen Accord, which was agreed at the 2009 U.N. climate talks in the Danish capital, industrialised nations promised to raise $100 billion a year in climate aid by 2020.
To get cash flowing, developed countries agreed to commit $30 billion of new money to help poor countries cut emissions and adapt to climate change over the 2010-2012 period.
While countries appear on track to meet the overall $10 billion per year target, according to 2010 figures, some nations, including the world’s biggest economy, the United States, have yet to specify donations for 2011 and 2012, and others stand accused of using existing aid to meet pledges.
- Partisan wrangling in Congress and a focus on tightening purse strings in the federal budget process has led to a cut in the U.S. State Department’s budget request for international climate aid from $1.4 billion in FY 2011 to as low as $750 million.
- The EU and its member states have mobilised 2.34 billion euros out of the 7.2 billion promised over the period 2010-2012, but slow growth of just 0.2 percent in the euro zone economy in the second quarter of the year has raised concerns over Europe’s ability to raise $100 billion a year.
- Japan, which pledged $15 billion out of the nearly $30 billion in “fast-start” finance in Copenhagen, has said it plans to honor its financial commitments but will have to deal with a flagging economy hit hard by the March earthquake and tsunami, and subsequent nuclear power crisis.
As the U.S. and euro zone face growing prospects of double-dip recessions, there is an increasing risk they will not deliver on their financial pledges to help poor countries adapt to climate change and slow their rapidly growing emissions.
NEWS IS ‘WORSE AND WORSE’
“The main frame I would put on this is that we are in a really bad economic situation and the news seems to be getting worse and worse. There is no way to repaint that as a pretty picture,” said Jennifer Haverkamp, the head of the Environmental Defense Fund’s international climate policy team.
“It is quite possible some countries are not going to come close on their pledges,” she said.
Since the Copenhagen Accord also requires large developing nations such as China, India and South Africa to take action on mitigating their emissions, any economic slowdown in the U.S. or EU and threat to funding promises could raise the stakes at upcoming U.N. climate talks in Durban, South Africa, in November.
“We recognise this economic shadow is hovering over everything, and I don’t think it can be avoided,” said Sally Nicholson, manager of development policy and finance at the World Wildlife Fund in Brussels.
She added: “Developed countries seem determined to make any future financial commitments hinge on greenhouse gas mitigation actions taken by large developing countries.”
Jeff Coelho and Valerie Volcovici report for Thomson Reuters’ Point Carbon News.
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