Why Brazil's megadrought is a Wall Street failure

Amy Larkin in the Guardian (UK): It’s hard to overestimate the appalling environmental and economic crisis that’s brewing in Brazil right now. The country is in the grip of a crippling megadrought – the result of pollution, deforestation and climate change – that deeply threatens its economy, society and environment. And the damage may be permanent: São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city and industrial center, has begun rationing water and is discussing whether or not it will need to depopulate in the near future.

But if Brazil’s drought is shocking, Wall Street’s shortsighted approach to the country is appalling. Institutional investors’ reports on the country – the seventh largest economy in the world – cite worries about inflation, government cutbacks and low consumer confidence. But I could not find a single analysis that mentioned the existential threat facing the country: the megadrought that is expected to last decades and could destroy the Brazilian economy. Not a single analysis cited the brutal global impact that this will cause.

In other words, a host of institutional investors have found worrisome things to say about Brazil, but none seem to be aware of – or, at least, willing to face – the country’s greatest threat. Attempting to separate economies from environment – as many of these analysts seem to do – is like trying to separate mind and body. It simply doesn’t work.

We will never repair our business models and government policies to conform to the real environmental constraints of the 21st century until we repair this fundamental flaw in our economic system. Investors and analysts regularly review a host of factors – including national debt, inflation, currency devaluation and other financial considerations – when they formulate their economic predictions. Their decision to omit the environment as a fundamental economic consideration is willfully ignorant and negligent....

A dried up reservoir in Paraguacu, Brazil, from 2012, shot by WOtP, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Funding drought threatens Zimbabwe climate change response

Madalitso Mwando in the Thomson Reuters Foundation: Zimbabwe is struggling to pay for measures to cope with climate stresses and weather-related disasters, such as recent floods, amid domestic spending cuts and slow progress in accessing international finance.

The budget for the Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate has been reduced to $52 million for 2015, from $93 million set aside for 2014. As this year began with floods that have claimed some 20 lives and washed away villages, the funding squeeze has raised concerns about the country's preparedness for climate-linked disasters, which are expected to worsen as the planet warms.

The Civil Protection Unit, the state's disaster response agency, was caught unawares by the floods, exposing a lack of effective early warning for extreme weather events. The meteorological services department received $400,000 from the government last year - less than a tenth of the $5 million it says it needs annually.

Barnabas Chipindu, a meteorologist and lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe, said economic hardship had shrunk state capacity to deal with climate-related disasters. "The country does not have enough resources to combat the adverse impacts of climate variability," Chipindu told the Thomson Reuters Foundation....

Green Climate Fund hits $10 billion goal, after Australia surprise

Alister Doyle and Megan Rowling at Trust.org via Reuters: A new Green Climate Fund that aims to help poor nations cope with global warming reached a U.N. goal of $10 billion on Tuesday at global climate talks in Lima, helped by a surprise donation from Australia.

Several of the 190 nations at the meeting welcomed the cash from both Australia and Belgium, but China said rich countries were not working fast enough to meet a broader goal of providing $100 billion a year by 2020 from public and private sources to help the poor cope. "We've got above one of the psychologically important milestones of more than $10 billion," Hela Cheikhrouhou, head of the Fund, told Reuters. Pledges by 24 nations now total $10.14 billion, she said.

Environment ministers are meeting in Lima from Dec. 1-12 to work on elements of a draft deal to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Finance is a key part of the deal, due to be agreed in Paris in late 2015, to help developing nations take part. Australia, which faced criticisms by developing nations after it did not make a pledge at a donors' meeting last month, pledged A$200 million ($166 million) and Belgium 51.6 million euros ($64 million)....

Image by Svilen.milev, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported licens

UN report urges more funds for climate change adaptation, warns on temperature rise

UN News Centre: Despite public funding of climate change adaptation measures reaching as high as $26 billion in 2012-2013, a new United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report predicts a significant funding gap after 2020 unless new and additional finance for adaptation is made available.

The first UNEP Adaptation Gap Report finds that even if global greenhouse gas emissions are cut to the level required to keep temperature rise below 2°C, the cost of climate change adaptation in developing countries is likely to reach two to three times the previous estimates of $70-100 billion per year by 2050.

“Debating the economics of our response to climate change must become more honest,” said UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner in a press release on the challenges ahead, released as the first week of UN climate talks in Lima, Peru wrap up. That conference is set to conclude its work on 12 December.

“As world leaders meet in Lima to take the critical next step in realizing a global agreement on climate change, this report underlines the importance of including comprehensive adaptation plans in the agreement.”

The report assesses global adaptation gaps in finance, technology and knowledge, and lays out a framework for future work to better define and bridge those gaps. It calls for further action to cut emissions to prevent adaptation costs from soaring as wider and more-expensive action is needed to protect communities from the intensifying impacts of climate change...

A panorama of Naajaat in northwest Greenland, Image shot by Slaunger and stitched together by Herbythyme, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Climate fund receives $9.3 billion pledge

BBC: Thirty nations meeting in Berlin have pledged $9.3bn (£6bn) for a fund to help developing countries cut emissions and prepare for climate change. The Green Climate Fund was to have held at least $10bn by the end of 2014, so the pledge is just shy of the target.

The South Korea-based fund aims to help nations invest in clean energy and green technology. It is also designed to help them build up defences against rising seas and worsening storms, floods and droughts.

Rich nations previously vowed that by 2020, developing countries would get $100bn (£64bn) a year from such a fund. The US had already pledged $3bn and Japan $1.5bn. The UK, Germany and France have promised about $1bn each, and Sweden more than $500m million.

Smaller amounts were offered by countries including Switzerland, South Korea, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Mexico, Luxembourg and the Czech Republic. After co-hosting the donors' conference, German Environment Minister Gerd Mueller hailed the achievement, saying humanity must fight climate change so "it doesn't go the way of the dinosaurs"....

A 2004 flood in Dhaka, shot by Raiyan Kamal, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons 2.5 license 

A new breed of muni bond is financing climate change adaptation

Cassie Owens in Next City: Scott Stringer has his way, New York will soon be the nation’s largest municipal player in the burgeoning green bond market. On Wednesday, Stringer, the city comptroller, proposed a new program for issuing municipal bonds specifically dedicated to financing climate-friendly projects. Announced during UN Climate Week, Stringer’s proposal came a few days after Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled a plan to cut the city’s greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050.

Internationally, interest has grown in green bonds as cities like New York embark on record numbers of big-ticket infrastructure projects aimed at boosting resilience to climate change. In New York alone, the tab on the planned projects will exceed $27 billion over the coming years. In 2014, worldwide green bonds issuance is expected to nearly quadruple last year’s total, and in another Climate Week announcement, several major investment banks such as Zurich, Barclays and Aviva made promises to invest in the bonds and help strengthen the market.

New York isn’t the first city to see opportunity in green bonds. In July, the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority issued a $350 million, 100-year certified green bond. The $2.6 billion project will all but rid the city of combined sewer overflows, or treat wastewater from multiple pipes and tunnels that would have otherwise flowed altogether into the city’s rivers. Investors placed orders for about $1.1 billion worth of bonds, with about $100 million coming from those specifically focused on green bonds, the Wall Street Journal reported. George Hawkins, general manager of the water authority, told the Journal that the robust reception from Wall Street was unusual; the green bond “brought more investors to the table” than a regular bond might have.

D.C. Water and Sewer CFO Mark Kim believes that green bonds could be great for other utilities. D.C. Water and Sewer will certainly be issuing more. “Our intent is to finance all remaining capital expenditures for the Clean Rivers Project with a green bond,” Kim says.

Green bonds have been slow to catch on. The World Bank sold the first green bonds in 2008 as part of its efforts to encourage climate change adaptation and mitigation, but the bonds didn’t pick up steam in America until 2013. Experts say total bond issuance is on track to reach $40 billion by year’s end, a pool of money that will in large part go to strengthening infrastructure, including water systems, electrical grids and transportation networks.

What green bonds bring to the table is a not a new order, but rather a new label for reaching investors interested in climate-friendly projects. Matt Fabian, a managing director of Municipal Market Advisors, points out the processes for a muni green bond and any other muni bond are identical....

Driving on the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, shot by Bob Jagendorf, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons 2.0 license

Adapting to climate change can’t be left to the wild west of the markets

Razmig Keucheyan in the Guardian (UK): ......This fiscal crisis of the state will weigh not only on reaction and adaptation to climate events, but on mitigation policies. Cutting greenhouse gas emissions implies an energetic transition on a massive scale towards clean energies. This requires investments by the state, which will be difficult given the already overstretched public finances. Rising debt levels inflicted on societies by neoliberal tax cuts for the rich gravely compromise our capacity to adapt to climate change.

So far, so good. But then the IPCC report takes a final step – in the wrong direction. To bridge the gap in public finances caused by recurrent extreme weather events, it recommends appealing to private investors. More precisely, it advocates the implementation of financial instruments such as catastrophe bonds or microinsurance as a means to lighten the burden on the state in the face of a changing climate. Where the state does not have the resources to act, financial markets should take charge.

This financialisation of adaptation was already encouraged, in the years preceding the release of the IPCC report, by organisations such as the World Bank and the OECD. Thus, a 2012 working paper published by the OECD spoke of the need to “immunise public finances” from the effects of climate change, by issuing so-called “sovereign” catastrophe bonds, ie catastrophe bonds issued by states.

Financialising adaptation is a bad idea for numerous reasons. Here are two. Firstly, finance is prone to crisis, as the subprime market’s collapse demonstrated in 2007. Thus, financialising adaptation would put adaptation policies – parts of them at least – at the mercy of the erratic behaviour of financial markets. Adding financial instability to environmental instability will only increase the scale of disasters. What is needed, on the contrary, is less reliance on the logic of markets, and more environmental long-term planning.

Secondly, finance is in its essence undemocratic, ie out of the control of democratic deliberation. It is a form not only of economic dispossession, but of political dispossession, where the few choose for the many.

Adaptation to climate change, however, will require the involvement of the people, the deepening of the democratic process, and even the invention of new democratic institutions. Without their active commitment, their knowledge and knowhow, it is doomed to fail. The reason for this is that adaptation will in a good part be a matter of reorganising the daily lives of the people, and that this will obviously not be done without them. Adaptation to climate change, from this perspective, may well be our chance to revitalise democracy “from below”...

Panic at the New York Stock Exchange in 1893

Australian environmentalists welcome bank wariness on reef port

PhysOrg: Environmentalists on Saturday welcomed Deutsche Bank's reluctance to invest in a major port expansion near Australia's Great Barrier Reef, saying it reflected global concern about the project. Australia gave the green light to the major coal port expansion for India's Adani Group at Abbot Point on the Great Barrier Reef coast last year subject to strict environmental conditions.

But conservationists slammed the approval, warning it would hasten the natural wonder's demise given it is under pressure from climate change, land-based pollution and crown-of-thorn starfish outbreaks. At its annual general meeting in Europe on Friday, Deutsche Bank said its policy for dealing with activities in or near World Heritage Sites ruled it out of investing in Abbot Point.

"Deutsche Bank does not support activities when the government and UNESCO do not agree that the planned activities do not place the exceptional universal value of the site at risk," the bank said. "As we have seen, there is currently no consensus between UNESCO and the Australian government regarding the expansion of Abbot Point in the vicinity of the Great Barrier Reef. Our policy requires such a consensus at the least. We therefore would not consider applications for the financing of an expansion any further."

UNESCO has stated concerns about coastal development proposed in the region including port and coal operations, with the body expected to discuss the issue at a meeting in June.

The Australian Marine Conservation Society, which is campaigning against the port expansion, welcomed Deutsche Bank's stance, which it said showed global concern about plans to "industrialise the coastline of the Great Barrier Reef"...

Helicopter view of the Great Barrier Reef, shot by Nickj, Wikimedia Commons, licenseed under Creative Commons 3.0 

New-concept flood insurance could help Bangladesh's poor

IRIN: A new insurance scheme in which pre-determined flood thresholds trigger speedy compensation offers hope for poor people in flood-prone Bangladesh, experts say. “Floods adversely impact the ability of the poor to earn a livelihood both by destroying assets and limiting opportunities for labour,” said Snehal Soneji, Oxfam International’s Bangladesh country director.

“This [insurance] product is index-based and operates at the meso-level, which means that payout is triggered on the basis of a certain threshold being reached resulting in immediate payout without the long process of surveying and then payout,” he explained, referring to traditional insurance schemes that rely on time-consuming damage assessment surveys to determine compensation.

According to a 2012 article in the journal Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, “index insurance indemnifies the insured based on the observed value of a specified `index’ or some other closely related variable… [and] the most widely used index in index insurance contract designs is rainfall.”

A 2013 scoping report by the Malaysia-based research organization World Fish and a consortium of environment and agricultural agencies argued: “With current and anticipated increases in magnitude of extreme weather events and a declining consistency in weather patterns…there has been a growing interest in weather index-based insurance schemes in Bangladesh.”

Norul Amin, economic and private sector coordinator at Oxfam-Bangladesh, told IRIN: “There is strong demand for financial disaster recovery mechanisms, not only among the poor communities, but also insurance sector, donor agencies, micro-finance institutes and government officials.”...

In 2007, an aerial view over southern Bangladesh reveals extensive flooding as a result of Cyclone Sidr. US Marine Corps photo by Staff Sgt. Julius Hawkins (RELEASED)

Conference to examine financing options for climate change adaptations

Jakarta Post: An international conference in Nepal will examine ways to unlock financing that could help local communities in developing countries adapt to climate change.

The 8th International Conference on Community Based Adaptation (CBA8) is aimed at encouraging the private sector to invest in climate adaptation and ensure that public finance can reach the communities that need it most.

The meeting, which is set to take place in Kathmandu from April 24 to April 30, is organized by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies and Clean Energy Nepal, which will present on behalf of the Climate Change Network Nepal. The Nepalese government will host the conference.

“As the cost of adaptation rises, the need for finance to reach communities will grow more urgent,” IIED senior fellow Saleemul Huq said in a release made available to The Jakarta Post on Tuesday. “Governments must strive to ensure public money can filter down to poorer communities, and create incentives for the private sector to invest in community-based adaptation,” he went on. The conference will gather policymakers, researchers and others to explore what funding is available and where, and assess how well it reaches those most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. More than 300 participants will attend the conference...

The Bagmati River in Kathmandu, Nepal, shot by Etter Studio, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license 

Caribbean to forge united front on elusive climate finance

Peter Richards in IPS: Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, the prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, says the promises of money by the “biggest polluters in the world” for small island developing states (SIDS) like his to adapt to climate change are a mostly a “mirage”.

But as chair of the 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM) grouping, Gonsalves will be playing a lead role in getting the region to coordinate a united front on climate finance.  “We agreed on the establishment of a task force on climate change and small island developing states to provide guidance to Caribbean climate change negotiators, their ministers and political leaders in order to ensure the strategic positioning of the region in the negotiations,” he told IPS following the CARICOM summit that ended here on Tuesday.

Gonsalves said the region is now preparing for two important meetings in September – the U.N. Climate Change Summit and the Third U.N. SIDS International Meeting in Samoa.

Guyanese President Donald Ramotar, who made a presentation at CARICOM’s closed-door summit, told IPS that it was important for the leaders themselves to get involved in the negotiations “and to make our voices heard on this matter, because as you know we have been the least contributors to climate change, but we are among the first to feel the big effects.”

...The task force must now “find areas where CARICOM can agree on”, he said. “This is a critical decision by heads [of state] at a time when efforts are underway through the U.N. to have a global climate change agreement by the end of 2015,” he said...

Mustique International Airport, shot by Acp, Wikimedia Commons,  under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

In the Philippines, a vortex of climate change and debt

Samuel Oakford in IPS: Since Typhoon Yolanda made landfall in the Philippines on Nov. 8, the country has sent holders of its debt close to one billion dollars, surpassing, in less than two months, the 800 million dollars the U.N. has asked of international donors to help rebuild the ravaged central region of the archipelago.

Even as the Philippines goes hat in hand to wealthier countries seeking disaster relief, it continues to diligently pay creditors in those same countries millions of dollars every day – much of it interest on debt that can be traced back to the corrupt regime of Ferdinand Marcos (1965-1986) , Cold War ally to the West.

When Philippine President Benigno Aquino III announced last week the staggering cost of rebuilding from the storm, the price tag – 8.17 billion dollars – and a pair of emergency loans to help meet that goal distressed debt reduction campaigners in the country who have for many years called for a cancellation of illegal debts.

“Every dollar of funding assistance will be used in as efficient and as lasting a manner as possible,” Aquino assured reporters. “The task immediately before us lies in ensuring that the communities that rise again do so stronger, better and more resilient than before.”

Yet every 12 months, the Philippines transfers to lenders nearly the same amount Aquino hopes to raise for reconstruction. And because Filipino law privileges the payment of debt over all other expenses, those installments could end up eating into rebuilding funds.

Even before the storm, education and healthcare spending in the country fell well short of global benchmarks; one in five Filipinos live in poverty and over 15 million are malnourished....


Shanties in Manila, photo by Anton Zelenov, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Who pays for climate adaptation?

Indymedia (Australia): Climate extremes are already straining the resources of many countries, the Philippines being the latest victim. As the cycle of increasing damage and incomplete recovery accelerates the costs of disaster relief will grow. Occasionally, governments have used one off levies to help meet these demands eg Australia in 2012. Such levies have been accepted with limited complaint but future impacts are projected to be harsher, more frequent and more widespread.

In contrast, controls on green house gases have been relentlessly opposed as an impediment to economic growth and even portrayed as a threat to individual rights. Carbon markets, taxes and international agreements have been undermined and stalled. At the same time, adaptation to climate change risks has broadly been accepted, even though a key change in liability has occurred.

A home owner threatened by sea level rise faces adaptation costs but the cause is no longer just an “act of God”. Everyone who uses fossil fuels is contributing to the problem and has a portion of responsibility. Though it may be difficult to ascribe how much of a particular storm is due to climate change it is possible to calculate the rising cost of weather damage and the costs of adaptation.

So far, the costs of climate change have been reflected in soaring insurance premiums and struggling communities. Calls for government assistance and forward planning are certain to increase with the relentless march of global warming. Sooner or later the debate will turn to liability and a climate levy on fossil fuels.

Why would a national levy on fossil fuels be so different to a carbon price? A climate levy cannot be portrayed as a restriction of rights or a market impediment since it is simply a reflection of the liability from choosing to burn fossil fuels. The social engineering tag cannot be applied since the primary aim is to defend property and assets. While a carbon price has no effect on steeply rising insurance rates an adaptation levy would apply downward pressure on premiums by limiting risk, sharing damages and spreading cost....

Bondi Beach in Sydney, shot by Sardaka, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license

Philippines holds interest rate at record low to aid typhoon recovery

Karl Lester M. Yap and Max Estayo in Bloomberg News: The Philippines held its benchmark interest rate at a record low for a ninth meeting to boost the economy’s recovery from Super Typhoon Haiyan, even as it raised its inflation forecast for next year.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas kept the rate it pays lenders for overnight deposits at 3.5 percent, Governor Amando Tetangco said in Manila today, as forecast by all 16 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

The economy expanded at its slowest pace in more than a year last quarter, and policy makers predict damage from the typhoon will crimp growth through the first half of 2014. The central bank said potential increases in food and utility costs and a weakening peso could raise price pressures, while global funds pulled $43 million from Philippine stocks this month partly on concern that the U.S. will reduce monetary stimulus.

“There is a risk of Bangko Sentral considering a tightening move probably any time in the middle of next year, when inflation could peak at above or close to 5 percent,” said Emilio Neri, an economist at Bank of the Philippine Islands in Manila. “Less accommodative U.S. policy would entail further weakening of the peso,” he said, adding that higher utility prices could lead to a temporary breach of the inflation target....

A 100-peso Philippine note, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas... in the public domain, but not negotiable

Shrinking the financial fallout of natural disasters

IRIN: Relief will be more easily and quickly available, and the economic fallout much more manageable, if governments project and plan fiscally for potential natural disasters and their human and economic toll well in advance, experts say.

The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) has calculated that since 2000, economies have lost as much as US$2.5 trillion due to natural hazards. In 2011 Thailand lost around 5 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) to floods, and Japan lost some 4 percent of its GDP to the earthquake and tsunami.

The latest major disaster in the region, Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, is likely to cause losses of around $12.5 billion, or 5 percent of the 2012 GDP in this lower middle-income country, Margareta Wahlstrom, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, told IRIN.

The death and destruction in the Philippines is the worst since 1991. Up to 9 December 2013, the typhoon, which struck on 8 November, had affected more than 12 million people, killed nearly 6,000 and left almost 1,800 more missing.

“It is vital that finance ministers and policymakers understand the simple truth that investing in reducing disaster risk, protecting critical infrastructure, such as schools, hospitals and transport systems, pays rich dividends,” Wahlstrom said...

Hurricane Irene seen from Cuba in 2011, shot by Superikonoskop, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license

Financial decision-makers need weather and climate information to manage risks

Science Daily: Maximizing returns on financial investments depends on accurately understanding and effectively accounting for weather and climate risks, according to a new study by the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Policy Program.

The study also found that weather events create and exacerbate risks to financial investments by causing

1. direct physical impacts on the investments themselves,
2. degradation of critical supporting infrastructure,
3. changes in the availability of key resources,
4. changes to workforce availability or capacity,
5. changes in the customer base,
6. supply chain disruptions,
7. legal liability,
8. shifts in the regulatory environment,
9. reductions in credit ratings, and
10. additional impacts that alter competitiveness (e.g., shifts in consumer preferences).

The study is based on a recent AMS Policy Program workshop, Climate Information Needs for Financial Decision Making, held in Washington, DC earlier this year and conducted in partnership with the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR). Financial analysts, investors, academicians, and key leaders from the business, financial, and climate research communities convened to examine the role of climate science in financial analysis.

The purpose of the study was to assist with societal decision-making by examining the implications of climate variability and change on near-term financial investments....

A weather vane in Portugal, shot by Joseolgon, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Rich countries must end obsession with private climate finance

A press release from Oxfam: Rich countries’ obsession with private finance means millions of poor and vulnerable people could be left to face increasingly extreme and erratic climate alone warned Oxfam today as ministers from around the globe meet in Warsaw to discuss how they deliver on their climate finance commitments.

Rich countries promised to deliver $100 billion a year by 2020 to help poor countries reduce their emissions and adapt to a changing climate. However two US-hosted Ministerial Meetings and pre-COP finance discussions during 2013 have focused almost exclusively on the role of private finance in meeting this target.

The invitation for Ministers to attend today’s meeting also highlighted the need for participants to come prepared to present ideas on how to mobilize funds from the private sector. Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of Oxfam International said: “Private finance is not a panacea. It has a role to play, particularly on projects aimed at reducing emissions, but it will not reach the most vulnerable people in the poorest countries who need help to survive in the face of increasingly extreme and erratic weather.”

“Rich country governments must stop using the private sector to side step their own climate finance promises and seize this opportunity to sort out the public funding mess. Murky accounting and a lack of transparency mean the world’s poorest countries have no idea what money will be available and when. The uncertainty makes it impossible for them to take action to protect their populations.

“Rich countries must make it clear what new money they are putting on the table now and how they will deliver the $100 billion a year they promised by 2020. Kicking this issue down the road again could spell disaster for poor communities who need help to adapt to a changing climate and lead to a breakdown in trust that will bury hopes for agreement on a global climate deal in 2015.”...

Greater financial investment needed to combat climate change – UN chief

UN News Centre: Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called on the international community to step up its financial investment in technologies, policies and practices that can help combat climate change, adding that time is running out to address this global threat.

“Climate change is the single greatest threat to sustainable development. Yet too often, one important fact gets lost amid the fear: addressing climate change is one of our greatest opportunities,” Mr. Ban said at the annual meeting of the International Development Finance Club (IFDC) in Washington, D.C. “With enlightened action, we can create jobs, improve public health and protect the environment.”

In his remarks, Mr. Ban underlined the role that the development finance community and the financial sector have in forging solutions to climate change. For example, large amounts of capital are needed to develop low-carbon infrastructure, and green enterprises need investments to close the gap between low-emissions and fossil-fueled based projects.

As the economic impact of climate change grows, more needs to be done, Mr. Ban stressed, calling on the IDFC to actively engage in next year's Climate Summit, which will bring together Heads of State, global leaders from business, finance and civil society.

“Our goal is mobilize political will for the negotiations, deliver concrete new commitments and spark a race to the top in climate action,” he said. “I hope you will collectively use the 2014 Climate Summit to reach the goal of $100 billion-a-year for new climate finance commitments. I also encourage you to double your portfolio of adaptation financing.”...

Cash-strapped Adaptation Fund puts climate projects on hold

Megan Rowling in the Thomson Reuters Foundation: A major U.N. fund that helps developing countries adapt to the negative effects of climate change faces a bleak financial future because of rock-bottom prices on the carbon market, its main source of income.

Marcia Levaggi, manager of the Adaptation Fund Board secretariat, told Thomson Reuters Foundation the fund could no longer provide grants for projects managed by intergovernmental agencies, such as the U.N. Development Programme, without additional contributions. Seven projects recommended by the board in countries including Mali, Cuba, Myanmar and Uzbekistan - amounting to $48.7 million - are on hold.

The Adaptation Fund is meant to be financed mostly from a 2 percent levy on the value of certified emission reduction (CER) credits issued under the U.N. Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) each year. The credits are earned by projects in developing nations that cut greenhouse gas emissions, and can be traded and sold by industrialised countries to meet part of their emission reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol.

But due to oversupply and uncertainty about future global caps on emissions, prices for the credits have plunged to around 60 euro cents ($0.82) per tonne of carbon dioxide, slashing the Adaptation Fund's income.

"It's not the 12 euros per tonne we used to have in 2011 - now it's really bad, and we cannot count on a recovery of the carbon markets in the near future," Levaggi said from Washington. "The CDM doesn't seem to be on a good track to continue, at least in the way it was."...

Report urges extreme weather superfund in wake of Sandy

Kirk Moore in USA Today via the Asbury Park Press (New Jersey): Escalating costs from weather disasters like superstorm Sandy and the recent Colorado floods show the need for a new national disaster relief and preparation fund, paid for with new revenue including a levy on atmospheric carbon emissions, according to a new report by the New Jersey-based nonprofit group U.S. Strong.

Sandy cost the American economy about $70 billion, with more than half of that in New Jersey, where uninsured losses and unmet needs are estimated to be between $8 billion and $13 billion in permanent losses — business, property and public infrastructure costs that cannot be covered by government aid or private insurance.

Four months in the making, the report collects now familiar stories of homeowners who learned that the flood insurance they had will cover only a fraction of their costs. While housing is a big part of that shortfall, even more of it is local public facilities — roads and town halls that a year later are still not fully repaired. That upper estimate of $13 million in unmet needs could rise in the months to come, state officials told the authors.

Those findings show there needs to be a new, dedicated national funding source to deal with extreme weather disasters, so the nation does not stagger from one emergency to the other like Sandy and Hurricane Katrina, said state Sen. Robert Singer, R-Ocean, who appeared in Point Pleasant Monday this afternoon with organizers of the report.

As the report documents, Singer said the private insurance industry has been of limited help. He recalled the $38,000 that went into fixing his house; it covered the cost of a crane to remove a felled tree, but not the cost of cutting up the tree and removing it....

Search and rescue operations during the recent Colorado floods, shot by Michael Rieger of FEMA