Oxfam warns of climate debt with World Bank climate aid

Abigail Kwok in the Inquirer (Philippines): Oxfam International has warned that the $100 billion a year pledged by rich nations to help fight climate change could fail the poorest people if recent moves to deliver climate cash as loans continue. In its report, “The $100 billion Questions,” Oxfam raised concerns saying that “a significant proportion of the first installments of climate cash, to be delivered between 2010 and 2012 will be loans not grants.”

“At a time of economic emergency, when several poor countries are slashing critical health and education budgets to avoid a debt crisis, rich countries are considering saddling them with climate debt for a situation they did not cause and are worst affected by,” said Oxfam’s Senior Policy Advisor Antonio Hill Tuesday.

…In its report, Oxfam lays out suggestions on how rich countries can not only meet their $100 billion a year promise, but also double it by 2020. Some of the suggestions include:

• $100 billion a year from a global Financial Transactions or ‘Robin Hood’ tax on banks;

• $20-$30 billion a year through the creation of emissions trading schemes for international aviation and shipping. This would cap the amount of carbon emissions these industries could produce and then charge them for each unit of carbon used;

• $75 billion a year in fixed contributions from rich countries according to their historic responsibility for carbon emissions and ability to pay. This could be raised through the money from domestic emissions trading (or cap-and-trade) schemes or taken from budgets currently used for subsidizing fossil fuels and carbon-heavy industry;

• $16 billion a year by 2012 from the IMF in the form of low-interest loans for low-carbon development. Using $120 billion of rich country Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) as capital, ‘green bonds’ could be issued, raising $40 billion per year that can be made available as low-cost loans for clean energy investments in developing countries. Of the $40 billion loaned every year, the net transfer (or savings) benefiting developing countries is $16billion….

The 1555 woodcut illustrates the story tale how Starkaðr helped the Norwegian king Helge to fight against nine unjust fighters. From Olaus Magnus' "Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus"