Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Money a key element in Bonn adaptation talks

IRIN: At the first round of climate change talks in Bonn, Germany, a delegate from the Philippines noted that the Christmas bonus of a Wall Street banker was higher than the amount of money allocated to the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF). "Funding remains the key issue," said Saleemul Huq, head of the climate change group at the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).

The talks to draft a new climate change treaty were held under the auspices of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and ended on 8 April. The conference supported calls by developing countries to scale up the two funds set up to help poor nations adapt to global warming: the Adaptation Fund and the LDCF.

NGOs and experts acknowledged that "good progress" had been made on the adaptation track, with lots of debate on how the process should be driven, and the role of insurance and risk management, but the success of the track will be measured by the amount of funding it will be able to generate.

Developed countries need to provide at least US$50 billion every year for adaptation financing, in addition to the Official Development Assistance given to developing countries, said an article in ECO, the newsletter of the Climate Action Network (CAN), which covers more than 450 international NGOs working on issues related to climate change.

The article, Six weeks on: dog eats adaptation homework?, noted that "There is plenty of Easter homework for adaptation negotiators to do before they come back to Bonn in just over six weeks' time [for the second round of talks in June]."….

Bonn's coat of arms

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