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The divisive issue of reaching $100bn in climate funds
By Fabien ZAMORA
Lima (AFP) Oct 9, 2015


Vulnerable nations launch 'V20' to fight climate change
Lima (AFP) Oct 8, 2015 - Finance ministers from 20 of the countries most vulnerable to climate change launched the "V20" group Thursday to pool resources for their fight against the impact of global warming.

The group, which includes some of the world's smallest and poorest countries, is a counterpoint to the G20 group of leading industrialized and emerging economies.

It pointedly held its inaugural meeting just ahead of a gathering of G20 finance ministers in the Peruvian capital Lima, where economic policy-makers from around the world are gathered this week for the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

"We are low- and middle-income, least developed, arid, isthmus, landlocked, mountainous and small island developing countries," the group said in statement.

"Home to close to 700 million people -- or approximately one in 10 alive today.... (And) we are united in our shared vulnerability and exposure to climate change."

The group, which aims to both raise and manage climate funds, agreed to set up a public-private "climate risk pooling mechanism," a sort of insurance fund for extreme weather events and disasters.

The launch came as the clock ticks down to key United Nations climate talks in December that will seek a comprehensive deal on curbing carbon emissions and saving the planet from the potentially disastrous impacts of global warming.

Funding for poor and vulnerable nations has been a major sticking point in previous climate talks.

Wealthy nations have pledged to come up with $100 billion a year in financing by 2020. As of last year, they had reached $62 billion, according to a new report.

The V20's inaugural chair, Philippine Finance Minister Cesar Purisima, said the cost of falling short would be astronomical.

"In the absence of an effective global response, annual economic losses due to climate change are projected to exceed $400 billion by 2030 for the V20," he said.

UN climate chief Christiana Figueres urged "ambitious and timely finance" to help the V20 countries.

"Climate change is not only an environmental issue, it is a fundamental economic issue and needs financial solutions," she said.

The V20's members are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Barbados, Bhutan, Costa Rica, East Timor, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Kiribati, Madagascar, the Maldives, Nepal, the Philippines, Rwanda, Saint Lucia, Tanzania, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Vietnam.

The movers and shakers of the world economy are trying to close in on the magic number of $100 billion a year to fight climate change as they meet this week in Peru.

But with the world well shy of that target, everyone seems to think the rest of the money should come from somewhere else.

The global talks on fighting climate change have stumbled over the issue of getting money to the countries that are most vulnerable to global warming and often least responsible for causing it.

Wealthy nations have pledged to come up with $100 billion a year by 2020, but with two months to go to clutch United Nations climate talks, a new report this week found the world is less than two-thirds of the way there.

French Finance Minister Michel Sapin, whose country will host the December talks, said Thursday that governments have given pretty much all they can, and called on institutions like the World Bank and European Investment Bank to step up.

"That will be decisive, because they haven't done a lot," he told journalists on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings, which have gathered finance ministers and central bank chiefs from 188 countries.

"If we want the Paris conference to be a success, the question of funding has to be nine-tenths settled, if not 100 percent," said Sapin.

On Wednesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry also singled out the World Bank and company, saying: "The United States looks to the multilateral development banks to set ambitious targets for scaling up mitigation and adaptation finance" at the Peru meetings.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) calculated this week that wealthy countries came up with $61.8 billion in climate funding last year, including $23.1 billion in bilateral deals between countries, $20.4 billion from multilateral institutions and $16.7 billion from the private sector.

But while development banks could indeed do more, governments should not be let off the hook, climate experts say.

"Multilateral institutions can do more, but countries must also do more," said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's point man on climate change, Under-Secretary General Janos Pasztor.

International charity Oxfam's climate policy expert Isabel Kreisler echoed that view, saying: "Both the multilateral banks and governments should pay more."

- 'All that glitters...' -

Responding to such appeals, the Inter-American Development Bank pledged Thursday to increase climate finance from about 14 percent of lending to between 25 and 30 percent by 2020.

And the Asian Development Bank announced last month it would increase climate finance from $3 billion to $6 billion, directing 30 percent of its lending toward green projects.

Pierre Moscovici, the European commissioner for economic and financial affairs, meanwhile said he would pile "positive pressure" on European Union members to rise to the occasion in Peru, particularly the 10 countries that have yet to make pledges on climate funding ahead of the Paris talks.

But is $38.2 billion more even enough?

Some activists are critical of the OECD's calculations, saying part of the $61.8 billion in climate funding it reported should not have been counted.

"All that glitters isn't gold," Oxfam's Kreisler told AFP.

She said supposedly "green" funding such as agricultural projects had been counted even when not directly linked to fighting climate change.

Activists have also criticized the OECD for counting too many loans, which will have to be repaid, saying more of the $100 billion should be in the form of grants.

"There are still problems with the accounting method, which includes a lot of loans," said Denis Voisin, of the Nicolas Hulot Foundation, a French environmental group.

"For now, the OECD report is a report for the countries of the north.... And that's great. But now all countries need to get involved in this process," Pasztor told AFP.

New York praised for climate leadership
New York (UPI) Oct 9, 2015 - New York state won praise from the environmental community for taking the lead on steps needed to advance a low-carbon economy.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a series of measures aimed at curbing the threat from climate change, including major investments for the state's solar power industry. Cuomo said his administration already has the most aggressive emissions plan in the nation, pledging in early 2015 to cut emissions by 40 percent of the 1990 levels by 2030.

"We are joining together and committing ourselves to tackling climate change and showing the nation what is possible," he said in a statement. "Now it is up to world leaders to follow suit."

The governor said in a speech alongside low-carbon advocate and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore that New York was joining 19 countries, the state of California and dozens of other regional government bodies in North America in making the commitments.

The Natural Resources Defense Council said New York was setting the gold standard by following precedent set by other global economies in making commitments to tackle climate change.

"New York is moving forward with the mantle of climate and clean energy leadership," Kit Kennedy, NRDC director of energy programs, said in a statement.

Last week, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called on the five city pension boards to consider a proposal to divest from coal to align funds with current trajectories in the energy market.

Industry critics said divesting from coal for the sake of addressing climate goals was a short-sighted investment strategy. Matt Dempsey, a spokesman for the Independent Petroleum Association of America, said it's not a particular act of "political heroism" to shy away from coal as pensions funds still hold oil and gas securities.

New York state law requires that 30 percent of the electricity in the state comes from renewable energy by the end of this year.


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CLIMATE SCIENCE
Development banks pledge $15 bln in new climate funds: officials
Lima (AFP) Oct 9, 2015
Development banks including the World Bank have pledged an additional $15 billion a year by 2020 to fight climate change, taking the world closer to the clutch target of $100 billion, officials said Friday. Just two months before key UN climate talks in Paris, world leaders are scrambling to reach the magic number of $100 billion in funding to combat global warming and help vulnerable nation ... read more


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