COP 19: Åbningen mandag af klimakonferencen i Warszawa blev overskygget af tyfon-katastrofen i Filippinerne – et land, som fik færre bistandspenge til at modstå voldsomme klimaudslag i 2011 end i 2010 og det gælder i det hele taget løfterne om at bistå de fattige lande med at tilpasse sig klimaændringerne.
BRUSSELS, 11 November 2013 (IRIN): Yet another round of UN climate talks (COP 19) began Monday, this time in Warsaw, occurring against the backdrop of Typhoon Haiyan, which has reportedly killed at least 10.000 people in the Philippines.
But two new papers point out that funding promised to help countries adapt (tilpasse sig) to climate change have been insufficient and untransparent (svære at danne sig et overblik over).
In fact, from 2010 to 2011, commitments (tilsagn) for adaptation finance decreased in the Philippines, according to a joint paper by Oxfam, the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the Overseas Development Institute (ODI).
The paper looked specifically at a 2009 commitment made by rich countries – which came to be known as “fast-start finance” – to fund developing countries’ adaptation efforts. Another recent Oxfam paper also showed that rich countries have failed to keep that 2009 promise.
At the opening of the UN talks in Warsaw, Naderev Sano, the Philippines’ climate change negotiator, reportedly announced that he would embark on a voluntary fast until there was action that would protect his country’s future.
Funds short
The 2009 fast-start finance commitment, which called for developed countries to provide 30 billion US dollar (165 milliarder DKR) between 2010 and 2012, was made at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meeting (COP 15) in Copenhagen in December 2009.
At the same meeting, the developed world promised to mobilize 100 billion dollar (550 milliarder DKR) a year by 2020.
A number of think-tanks and academics have since underlined the difficulty of identifying and accounting for (spore) this money because of discrepancies (forskelle) in reporting, the lack of a common understanding of what “adaptation” and “vulnerability” mean, and a lack of transparency (gennemskuelighed).
At a recent board meeting of the Adaptation Fund, a fund set up under the UNFCCC, an aid official said money is running short.
“The Adaptation Fund has eight approved adaptation projects [for developing countries] stuck in the pipeline that require about 60 million dolllar,” said Sven Harmeling, climate change advocacy coordinator for the NGO CARE International.
The new paper by Oxfam “estimates a total of 16,3 billion dollar of finance for 2013… though the actual net budget allocations (afsatte beløb) may be closer to 7,6 billion dollar, as some countries have counted (indregnet) loans that will be repaid.”
The amount, whether 7,6 billion or 16,3 billion dollar, “is well below even the lowest estimate of what it is going to cost developing countries to adapt to climate change”, said Oxfam.
No one knows for sure how much money developing countries will need to adapt.
* The UNFCCC has estimated that by 2030, poor countries will need between 28 billion and 59 billion dollar a year to adapt.
* The World Bank thinks between 20 billion and 100 billion dollar should do it.
* The European Union Commission put the amount between 10 billion and 24 billion dollar a year by 2020, and
* the African Group of climate change negotiators arrived at a sum of more than 67 billion dollar a year.
But Oxfam points out “by comparison, developed countries spent 55-90 billion dollar a year during 2005-2011 on fossil fuel subsidies (støtteordninger til fossile brændstoffer såsom kul m.v.).
The Netherlands is spending 1 billion euros (ca. 7,4 milliarder DKR) to protect its lowlands from flooding and Australia will spend 12 billion dollar till 2018 on adapting to domestic water stress (pres på sine vandforekomster).”
Numbers unclear
Læs videre på
http://www.irinnews.org/report/99101/climate-change-adaptation-hit-by-funding-drought
Se om den danske klimaministers forventninger i telegrammet
http://www.u-landsnyt.dk/nyhed/03-11-13/klimaminister-vores-l-fter-om-penge-til-u-landene
