Japan and EU to loan money to help developing countries handle climate change

Some major sovereign loans are under way, each with a strong adaptation component. According to Japan News Review: Prime Minister Fukuda is expected to announce a five-year 1 trillion yen package designed to help developing countries fight global warming during a World Economic Forum meeting in Switzerland in January, according to a Kyodo News report quoting government sources.

The aid package is expected to cover more than 50 Asian, African and Latin American countries. Recipient countries will under the program receive help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to prevent natural disasters linked to global warming.

And Reuters says: The European Union and the World Bank are discussing raising a major long-term loan to help poorest countries fund essential measures to fight climate change, the EU's development chief said on Wednesday. Industrialized countries would borrow the money on the international capital markets and advance it to developing states to help reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases and protect them from environmental damage, Development Commissioner Louis Michel told reporters. The size of the fund had not yet been discussed but it could involve the "colossal sums" needed to help poor countries fight against global warming, he said.

….Michel said developing countries such as low-lying Indian Ocean, Caribbean and Pacific island states faced the threat of extinction because of rising sea levels if predictions about global warming came true. They could only take measures to counter that threat with an urgent injection of funds from rich countries, he said.