Climate change responsibilities

Developed countries should keep their promises to provide developing nations with funds and clean technology

There are disagreements about how developed nations should offer funding assistance to help developing nations combat the effects of climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Whether substantial progress is made over the funding will help determine if the ongoing United Nations climate conference in Doha, Qatar, is a success or not.

The basis for such financial assistance is developed countries have emitted large volumes of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases since the start of the Industrial Revolution, gases that are viewed as a main cause of climate change and which are now at an impassable limit.

Despite their unshirkable political and moral responsibilities to offer considerable funds to the less-developed nations, which are the main victims of global greenhouse gas emissions, developed countries hold a bigoted and prejudiced attitude toward providing funds to developing countries, citing the possibility of developing nations using climate change as an excuse to acquire funding assistance for their economic development or other purposes.

Such an argument is groundless. Global losses caused by natural disasters and a degrading environment and ecosystem due to greenhouse gas emissions are enormous and the historical emitters should provide some compensation for the effects of their historical emissions. According to estimates by the World Bank and the United Nations Environment Program, developed countries should provide hundreds of billions of dollars a year to developing countries to compensate for the losses they have caused developing countries.

Actions taken by developing countries to tackle climate change - from forest protection and their efforts to adapt to a degrading environment and ease the impact of greenhouse gas emissions, to their efforts to acquire clean technology and train technological personnel - all need funding support from developed countries.

And so far, no developed nation has transferred technology to developing nations. But the proposal by developing nations that they can use the funds donated by developed countries to purchase some necessary technological patents from the private sector has opened a new approach for the realization of such technological transfers.

Although developed countries are reluctant to make any funding-assistance promises to developing nations, as indicated by the fruitless debates at the ongoing Doha conference, developing nations have put forward a few options: The first is the establishment of Fast Start finance for 2013 to 2015, as suggested by some Central African and island nations, a program similar to the $30 billion Fast Start finance for 2010 to 2012. The new finance should be $20 billion each year from 2013 to 2015, according to proponents. The second option, some developing nations suggest, is the establishment of a long-term funding mechanism, which would total $100 billion by 2020 - a commitment already made by developed countries at several climate conferences.

With the expiration of the first Fast Start finance at the end of this year, a majority of developed countries claim they have fulfilled their funding promises, some even claim their donations have exceeded their proposed commitment. However, the assistance has been much lower than promised. Some developing nations have also criticized the provision of the Fast Start finance as "fragmented across many channels", which, they said, has made its access and accountability extremely difficult to monitor. Many people even suspect that there was a lot of repackaging of old financial support in the Fast Start program, which violates the rules set up in Copenhagen that all the finance should be new and additional. According to a recent report by Oxfam, a British aid and development charity, only 33 percent of the money pledged for Fast Start is "new", and no more than 24 percent is "additional". Part of the money has come from the private sector rather than public finances, another violation of the Copenhagen spirit, the report said.

Thus, an objective and scientific assessment should be conducted to monitor the first Fast Start finance and its effects. Those countries that failed to fulfill their promises or misused donations should be held accountable. Such evaluation should also be applied to the different stages of long-term funding assistance.

Despite the establishment of the Green Climate Fund, which was established to provide support to developing countries to limit or reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to the impacts of climate change, no donations have so far been made. Concrete quotas should be stipulated for developed countries to contribute to the fund.

There also exist disagreements between developed and developing nations on the management of the green program, with the developing nations saying it should be put under the administration of the UN climate change conference to increase its transparency. Developed countries argue that the World Bank or other international institutions should administer the fund and the fund's board of directors should lay down its management specifics.

The greenhouse gas emissions by developing nations are expected to rapidly rise with their economic development. That will possibly be used as an excuse by developed countries to reduce their funding assistance to developing nations. Thus, developing nations should strengthen South-South cooperation, technologically or in funding, and explore the establishment of a climate fund to enhance their unity and mutual support in tackling climate change.

The author is a senior energy, environment and climate consultant to the National Resources Defense Council.

(China Daily 12/05/2012 page8)