UN could tap private sector to meet $100bn Copenhagen pledge
01.11.2010
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Governments seeking to raise $100bn (£62.2bn) to help poorer countries mitigate the effects of climate change look set to milk private sector cash flows, according to a leaked document.
UN advisers are looking at new sources of cash to meet the promise made by developed countries at the Copenhagen summit last year of raising $100bn a year in climate aid from 2020.
At the preliminary UN climate meeting in Tianjin, China, last month, the host nation queried whether developed countries would actually come up with the cash to help developing nations adapt to droughts, floods and rising sea levels.
But a 35-page report seen by news agency Reuters calls the amount " challenging, but feasible" and suggested that under varying assumptions, the public sector could mobilise more than $100bn and the private sector up to $500bn a year.
It says that between $2bn and $27bn could be raised from financial transaction taxes on foreign exchange, $4bn to $9bn from shipping, $2bn to $3bn from aviation, $3bn to $8bn from removal of fossil fuel subsidies and $8bn to $38bn from auctioning carbon allowances.
"New carbon-based public instruments and a carbon price in the range of $20 to $25 a tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2020" are also seen as "key elements" in reaching the $100bn mark.
While loans, rather than outright grants, may form the bulk of the money, it reports that there are still many objections to the proposals.
"The lack of political acceptability and unresolved issues of developing countries incidence makes it... difficult to implement universally," it said.
US special climate envoy Todd Stern also questioned some of the proposals. " There are some things that are proposed that we just don't think are good ideas," he told the Washington Post.
Charities have also objected to the use of loans rather than grants to repair the damage done by the largest emitters in the developed world.
"If you damaged your neighbour's house or car, you wouldn't lend them money to fix it. You would pay them," David Waskow of Oxfam International told Reuters.
The group will submit its final report to UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon on 4 November and it should form a basis of debate at the Cancun climate change talks, which kick off at the end of the month.
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