Developed countries slow in fulfilling climate finance promises
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The developed countries are "very slow" in fulfilling their climate finance promises made in Copenhagen, said a climate expert in a report published Monday.
The current status of climate aid financing is "very poor," Saleemul Huq, a senior fellow at the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), told Xinhua on Monday.
The actions of the developed countries are "very inadequate," and their pace is "very slow," said Huq, co-author of Copenhagen's Climate Finance Promise: Six Key Questions, published by IIED.
At the UN climate conference held in Copenhagen last December, the developed countries have promised to provide 10 billion U.S. dollars a year from 2010 to 2012, to be ramped up to 100 billion dollars a year by 2020.
"This was touted as a way to help developing countries avoid high-carbon pathways of development by adopting lower-emitting power sources such as solar or natural gas," said the report.
"But a closer look at the Copenhagen promise unearths at least six big questions -- anyone of which could seriously challenge the trust these funds were designed to build," it said.
According to the report, the six key questions are: What are the sources of funding? Is it new and additional? Who decides? Grants or loans? How predictable? Which channels?
Huq said the most important question is "Is it new and additional?" If there are not fine criterion, some people will "double-count existing funding and claim that it is new and additional when it is not," he said.
He said IIED asked the six questions at this moment because the "fast track" funds are supposed to be disbursed starting in 2010 and the questions need to be answered quickly. The developed countries are urged to clarify the questions and provide funding as soon as possible.
