Poorest need $1 bln for urgent climate projects

Megan Rowling, PlanetArk 11 Dec 08;

POZNAN - Rich nations will be asked to contribute $1 billion to a fund to help the poorest countries implement urgent projects to adapt to climate change, a top official said on Wednesday.

Boni Biagini, who runs the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF) which was set up under U.N. auspices in 2001, said funds would be raised based on an evaluation of plans from 38 of the world's poorest countries.

"They are pretty satisfied about this amount. They say $2 billion would be better, but let's start with $1 billion at least and of course scale up," she told Reuters on the sidelines of U.N. climate change talks in Poznan, Poland.

Ten more countries are still preparing programs of action to adapt to the impacts of global warming.

The LDCF was established under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and is managed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), a major international funder of environmental projects.

So far, rich countries have pledged only $172 million to the fund, with Germany, Denmark, Britain and the Netherlands contributing the most.

The United States has yet to give any money, but Biagini said she hoped that would change under the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama.

"It is the largest economy in the world and this is a fund for the poor ... so I am making my plea to the United States of America to give a contribution to the poor," she said.

Biagini said the United States had declined to contribute in the past, arguing incorrectly that the fund was part of the Kyoto Protocol, which it has not ratified.

Saleemul Huq, an adaptation expert at the International Institute for Environment and Development, said Washington could donate because the fund was part of the UNFCCC, of which the United States is a member country.

"Obama has a golden opportunity to move away from the absolutely shameless past of the Bush (administration) by making a major contribution of maybe $100 million or more," he said.

Many poor nations have complained about what they regard as delays in accessing cash from the fund. So far just one project has started in Bhutan, which aims to reduce the risks from glacial lakes that may overflow as rising temperatures melt ice.

Quamrul Islam Chowdhury, a negotiator from Bangladesh, told Reuters the Poznan talks had agreed the GEF should work with U.N. agencies developing the adaptation projects to speed up the process. Poor countries would also get assistance to build their capacity to adapt to climate change.

"This is one step in the right direction," he said.

Biagini said 24 projects were close to implementation, including measures to protect coastal areas from rising seas and to help farmers adjust to unpredictable weather.

(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

Poor countries 'need carbon cuts'
Richard Black, BBC News 9 Dec 08;

People in developing countries will need to make big cuts in greenhouse gas emissions if "dangerous" climate change is to be avoided, a report warns.

Researchers at the Third World Network calculate that even if rich nations make deep cuts, the developing world will face per-capita reductions of 60%.

It suggests this would pose challenges to these countries' development.

Meanwhile, another report warns that current proposals for cutting developed world emissions do not go far enough.

The Global Climate Network, an alliance of research groups, says that current pledges by the EU and by US President-elect Barack Obama will not put the world on track to halving emissions by 2050.

Both reports have been under discussion here at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) conference in Poznan, Poland.

Growth curve

"The figures are very grim," said Martin Khor, director of the Malaysia-based Third World Network.

"They're grim if we go for a 50% [global] cut by 2050, and we may need more - I think we only went for a 50% figure so as not to scare politicians."

Halving global emissions by 2050 (relative to a 1990 baseline) would mean that they are unlikely to rise more than 2.5C above the pre-industrial average, according to calculations by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Further IPCC analyses suggest this would avoid some of the most serious potential climate impacts.

The leaders of the G8 major industrialised nations endorsed the global target at their summit this year in Japan.

A number of countries, including the UK, want to keep their own emissions in 2050 80% below the 1990 baseline.

If the entire industrialised world took on this commitment, the Third World Network calculates, developing nations would have to cut their emissions by 23% in order for the world to hit its 50% target.

But because the populations of developing countries are growing, this 23% figure translates to a per-capita cut of 60%.

If the developing world made a more modest commitment, to keep its per-capita emissions constant at 1990 levels, population growth would still mean that the total emissions from these countries would double by 2050, scuppering any chance of a global 50% cut.

Although some developing countries have established plans for improving energy efficiency and curbing the rate at which their emissions are rising, there is no appetite within the bloc for an actual cut, and industrialised nations are not pressing them to take on firm targets.

Without such a commitment, this report suggests, there is little chance of avoiding temperature rises that are likely to bring major impacts, if the IPCC is right.

Cooking up

Ewah Eleri, executive director of the International Centre for Energy, Environment and Development based in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, said there were some obvious easy ways for the poorest developing countries to reduce emissions.

One would be to replace traditional open wood-burning stoves with more efficient models.

"Being able to introduce efficient wood stoves is not rocket science," he told BBC News.

"But it holds a lot of promise in terms of reducing the health hazard to men, women and children who work in the kitchen."

Making the switch across Nigeria could probably reduce the country's emissions by 20-30%.

Globally, he said, about two billion people use wood as their primary fuel; and switching them all to locally-made efficient stoves would cost about $6bn.

Mr Eleri said that although developing countries could do more, the lead has to be taken by the West.

The EU has staked a claim to that lead by vowing to cut its emissions by 20% by 2020, or by 30% if there is a global deal.

Mr Obama has proposed a more modest goal - bringing US emissions down by 2020 to the level they were at in 1990.

The analysis by the Global Climate Network suggests these pledges are not enough to halve global emissions by 2050, even if they are implemented.

There is, it says, a "mitigation gap".

"We have got to unlock emissions growth in developing countries," said the organisation's co-ordinator Andrew Pendleton, who is based at the Institute for Public and Policy Research (IPPR) in London.

"But we have got to find an equitable way of doing that."

The clear message from putting these two reports together was, he said, that richer nations will have to get finance and clean technology into the developing world if they want to turn the goal of a 50% cut into reality.

Asian Development Bank sets up carbon fund
Yahoo News 10 Dec 08;

POZNAN, Poland (AFP) – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Wednesday said it would launch a new fund next month, helped by pledges of 100 million dollars, to promote low-carbon projects in Asia.

The scheme seeks to ease the deepening worry surrounding the future of the carbon market beyond the end of 2012, when current provisions under the Kyoto Protocol run out, the ADB said at the UN climate talks in Poznan.

Over 100 million dollars have been promised to the new Future Carbon Fund, which will begin operations on January 30, ADB Vice President Ursula Schaefer-Preuss said at a press conference.

The money has been pledged mainly by European countries, led by Finland, Sweden and the Belgian province of Flanders, and the goal is to eventually top this up to 200 million dollars with the help of the private sector, she said.

One of the drivers for the Future Carbon Fund is concern about what will happen beyond 2012, she said.

Under the Kyoto Protocol, rich countries that have ratified the pact are required to curb their emissions of greenhouse gases by the end of 2012 compared to a benchmark year of 1990.

They can use several market-based tools to achieve this target, including the so-called Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), under which they gain carbon credits that can be bought and sold with other signatories.

The credits are gained by investing in projects in poor countries that are calculated to mitigate carbon emissions there.

But negotiations on a treaty that goes beyond Kyoto's 2012 commitments are moving slowly.

Corporations are keen on reaping carbon credits, but unsure about committing to investment if there could be a delay in getting the return, said Schaefer-Preuss.

"We believe the short remaining time under the Kyoto Protocol's first commitment period, and [an] uncertain regulatory framework beyond 2012, is beginning to hamper the trade in carbon credits, which in turn is reflected in the initiation of new low-carbon projects in developing countries," said Schaefer-Preuss.

The main innovation of the Future Carbon Fund will be to make finance available upfront to project developers instead of the standard "payment on delivery" method, she said.

Likely projects will be in renewable energy, energy efficiency, sustainable transport and urban sanitation.

The announcement was made on the sidelines of the December 1-12 talks under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), tasked with advancing towards agreement, in December 2009, for the post-2012 treaty.