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Eurozone crisis may cloud Durban climate talks
Monday November 14, 2011 08:54:58 AM,
Richa Sharma, IANS
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New Delhi: Ahead of
the Durban climate change talks beginning Nov 28, experts are
worried that Eurozone crisis may curtail the billions of dollars
of funding from industrialised countries to their poorer
counterparts to adapt to climate change.
Money is expected to be a bone of contention between developing
and developed countries at the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of Parties 17 (COP 17) Nov
28-Dec 9.
With financial crisis deepening in Europe -- spreading from Greece
to Italy -- and the US economy also going through a troubled
phase, the money pledged by developed countries is nowhere to be
seen.
"The financial crisis in Europe will definitely affect the flow of
money promised by the rich countries and this is going to be a big
fight in Durban," Chandra Bhushan, deputy director general of the
Centre for Science and Environment, told IANS.
According to Bhushan, with the troubled financial scenario in the
West, developing countries can forget about any money coming their
way, at least in the near future.
"Developed countries have already started re-labelling development
aid and loans as climate finance, but there is no new money coming
in," he said.
India's former key negotiator Prodipto Ghosh agreed that developed
countries are in the process of camouflaging other development aid
as climate finance.
"There is no new money coming from rich countries and they have
been re-packaging existing funds to help developing countries
adapt to climate change and curb emissions," Ghosh, a former
environment secretary and currently a senior fellow at The Energy
Research Institute (TERI), told IANS.
According to reports, EU finance ministers, during their meeting
in Brussels Nov 9, marked around $5.5 billion short-term funding
to help developing countries adapt to climate change.
Known as 'fast-start finance', the money is part of a commitment
at the 2009 climate summit in Copenhagen to provide $30 billion
between 2010 and 2012 to developing nations.
At the 2010 Cancun climate summit, developed countries had
re-confirmed a commitment to raise $100 billion annually by 2020
for the longer term.
NGOs like Oxfam and Greenpeace have termed the money pledged by
the EU as re-labelling of development aid.
"Climate finance will be part of India's agenda for Durban. The
developed world has promised money in last two conferences but
there has been no money on the table. Money is going to be a major
point of discussion at Durban," a senior government official, part
of India's 41-member delegation to Durban, told IANS.
India's official stand has been that success of the Durban
conference will depend on the operationalisation of the Cancun
agreements.
To this end, some comfort can be sought from the communique issued
after a G20 summit earlier this month.
"We are committed to the success of the Durban conference on
climate change. We call for the implementation of the Cancun
agreements and further progress in all areas of negotiation,
including the operationalisation of the Green Climate Fund, as
part of a balanced outcome in Durban," the communique said.
(Richa Sharma can be contacted at richa.s@ians.in)
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