Rich nations urged to develop climate aid plan for Cancún 04.11.2010
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/nov/04/rich-nations-climate-aid-cancun
Brazilian environment minister Izabella Teixeira says negotiators must show they can produce agreements to restore faith in climate talks
Governments in the industrialised world must have a clear climate aid plan for developing countries if they want to avoid a fiasco at the Cancún climate conference this month, Brazil's environment minister, Izabella Teixeira, has warned.
In an interview with the Guardian before this week's preparatory ministers' meetings in Cancún, Teixeira said negotiators needed to show they can produce concrete agreements to restore faith in the international talks for a global climate deal.
A key element was pinning down an agreement on climate finance, she said. "You need to adopt actions that show it is possible to do something until you have formal international agreements," Teixeira said. "We need to show the world that in spite of the political process we can work together."
Brazil is trying to play a bigger role in the United Nations climate talks by showcasing its commitment to cutting emissions before the Cancún talks.
The country last month announced it had reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 34% over the past five years, putting it well ahead of schedule for meeting its target of a 39% cut by 2020.
"If we keep this pace – and everything indicates that we shall do so – we will accomplish our goal of voluntary carbon dioxide reductions in 2016, four years before we had promised," the outgoing president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said at the time of the announcement.
Almost all of those emissions cuts came from a reduction in deforestation, with the authorities cracking down on illegal logging operations. Brazil has reduced deforestation in the amazon by 70% over the past seven years.
The country also became the first to channel taxes from domestic oil production to a climate adaptation fund. The government expects the fund to generate $132m (£81m) next year.
Lula said he hoped those initiatives would help encourage industrialised countries into action in advance of the UN meeting at Cancún starting 29 November.
Brazil, like the other large developing countries, is pushing hard for developed countries to make good on the promise at last year's Copenhagen climate summit to raise $100bn a year by 2020 to pay for emissions reduction and climate adaption in the developing world.
The climate fund was the one concrete achievement to emerge from Copenhagen. It was meant to kick off with a fast-track funding, channeling $30bn a year to developing countries from 2010 to 2012.
But as Cancún approaches, even that fund has failed to take shape, India's environment minister, Jairam Ramesh, complained.
"The promised $30bn is nowhere in the sight. At best we can hope to get $8bn or $9bn which is just peanuts," Ramesh told reporters before leaving for Cancún.
A UN advisory body of financiers and politicians is scheduled to report on Friday on how the international community can get to $100bn.
But Teixeira said draft reports suggest the group has yet to come up with clear guidelines on government funding. So far, the reports have looked at raising money by taxing air travel or bank transactions, or by reucing subsidies for fossil fuel.
An analysis by McKinsey consultants put public funds for climate finance as low as $12bn a year.
That does not go far enough, Teixeira said. It also failed to resolve the question of control over the climate fund – whether aid would flow through existing financial institutions or a new body.
"We have to discuss also public funds," Teixeira said. "It needs to be clear for us: what is the amount, what is the commitment from governments."
In a separate development, the former UK deputy prime minister Lord John Prescott today urged countries at Cancún to reach a temporary voluntary agreement, rather than a fully legally binding deal, to reduce emissions. With no prospect whatsoever of the US approving legal measures to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the world should extend extend the Kyoto protocol for five years to allow time for a voluntary system of verifiable emission reductions to be introduced, he said. The protocol, which commited countries to carbon emission cuts when it was ratified in 2005, is due to expire in 2012.
Prescott, now the Council of Europe rapporteur on climate change issues, speaking from China said it would be "disastrous" if the UN meeting due to start on 29 November were also to end in a stalemate like Copenhagen last year.
"Forget the legal agreement – you can't get it. That's the reality. The Americans can't deliver anyway and if they tried to get something through Congress, they couldn't get it anyway. Let's have a voluntary agreement. Let's stop the clock. Instead of Kyoto having to be done by 2012, stop it for about five years, put in a voluntary agreement and a verification system."
"It's only a small step, but I think the worst thing that could happen would be a failure at Cancún. If common sense applies and we are thinking about our children and our children's children, let's get an agreement," he said.
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