Rich not doing enough to help poor fight climate change: Oxfam

Yahoo News 4 Dec 07;

Rich countries need to increase their financial support to help the world's poorest nations adapt to the effects of climate change, Oxfam said Tuesday, describing current levels of aid as "an insult".

The British-based relief agency said rich nations had so far only contributed 67 million dollars into a United Nations fund to help impoverished countries combat global warming.

Americans spent more on suntan lotion each month, Oxfam calculated in a report published to coincide with the opening of the Bali conference sponsored by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which is designed to pave the way for a new pact to address the problem.

"This figure represents quite an insult, to be frank, given that the least developed countries will need at least one to two billion dollars to meet just their most urgent adaptation needs," said the report's author, Charlotte Sterrett.

Oxfam said rich countries gathering on the Indonesian island need to honour their promises to the fund by increasing their commitments, with an emphasis on adaptation rather than mitigation.

"Bali needs to tackle both cause and effect equally. Even if the world stopped polluting today, the worsening impacts of climate change will be with us for 30 years or more," Sterrett said.

"That's why it is so vital that rich countries help developing countries to cope now. This would also signal their genuine intent to tackle the problem."

Negotiators should help identify new systems for raising financing to help vulnerable people in developing nations have resources and support to plan for and protect themselves from the impact of global warming, Oxfam said.

Adapting to climate change in developing countries is likely to cost at least 50 billion pounds (103 billion dollars) per year and potentially more if carbon emissions are not cut worldwide, it added.

But current pledges to the fund set up to deal with this stand at 163 million dollars, of which 67 million dollars has been delivered.

Vulnerable communities were being hit by food and water shortages and increased poverty because of unpredictable weather and climate-related crises like floods, strong winds, high tides, forest fires and drought, it added.