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EU, U.S., Japan Say $9.9 Billion Spent on Climate Aid (Update1)
2010-11-30 21:52:06.951 GMT
(Adds U.S., Japanese funds from first paragraph.)
By Alex Morales
Nov. 30 (Bloomberg) -- The European Union, Japan and the
U.S. said they've channeled a total of $9.9 billion in climate
aid to developing countries this year, fulfilling pledges made a
year ago at United Nations global warming talks in Copenhagen.
Japanese envoy Kunihiko Shimada said today in an interview
that his country has paid out $5.3 billion in grants and loans,
and the 27-nation European Union published a briefing document
outlining 2.2 billion euros ($2.9 billion) of expenditures this
year. U.S. delegation chief Jonathan Pershing yesterday said his
country this year earmarked $1.7 billion of funding.
The payments are contributions to $30 billion of "fast-
start" funding promised last year to developing countries by
industrialized ones for the three years through 2012. Australia,
New Zealand and Canada are also donor nations. The money is
intended to help poorer nations adapt to the effects of climate
change, protect forests and cut emissions.
"We attach much importance to the need for transparency on
our fast-start activities," Peter Wittoeck, a Belgian envoy who
speaks for the EU, told reporters covering global warming talks
in Cancun, Mexico. The bloc's 27 members have all contributed,
"in spite of the difficult economic situation and strong
budgetary restraints all of us are under," he said.
The EU announcement was aimed at satisfying demands from
developing nations that pledges should be fulfilled in a
transparent manner. More than half the EU funding is made up of
loans, and 46 million euros has yet to be allocated, the bloc
said in its 12-page report.
'Raiding Aid Budgets'
The EU contribution is part of the bloc's pledge of 7.2
billion euros over the three-year period. Forestry projects
received 362 million euros of the funds this year and mitigation
about 1.06 billion euros, the document said.
Japan has pledged a total of $15 billion over the three
year period set out in the fast start program.
Measures to help nations adapt to the rising sea levels,
droughts and floods caused by climate change received 735
million euros, about a third of the total. That drew criticism
from aid groups including London-based Tearfund and the aid
charity Oxfam, which said adaptation should receive half of the
money. Another criticism was that the EU funding isn't
additional to overseas development aid, a key demand of
developing countries.
"The report makes it clear that fast-start funding is not
additional, therefore penalising the poorest people and raiding
existing aid budgets," Tearfund said in an e-mailed statement.
"Adaptation is being treated like the poor relative in the
climate negotiations process rather than a cornerstone element
towards a fair global climate deal."
British Aid
The U.K., which is pushing 568 million pounds ($883
million) of climate assistance for the 2010-2011 tax year, said
its climate assistance would come ftrtrom the development
budget, though it will remain less than 10 percent of those
outlays. Aid will take up 0.7 percent of the U.K.'s national
income from 2013, the government has said.
"Even in these very tough economic times, the government
has shown real leadership on global poverty and tackling climate
Change," the U.K. Department of Energy and Climate Change said
in an e-mailed statement.
Pershing of the U.S. said yesterday that his country's $1.7
billion contribution includes $400 million of loan guarantees,
and that the funding "will lead to jobs at home and jobs
internationally."
"This represents an enormous increase of climate finance
to help developing countries with projects ranging from
adaptation activities in small island states to helping Andean
nations address the impacts of tropical glacier retreat, to
clean energy programs in Africa," Pershing said.
For Related News and Information:
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--Editors: Reed Landberg, Will Wade
To contact the reporter on this story:
Alex Morales in London at +44-20-7330-7718 or
amorales2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at +44-20-7330-7862 or
landberg@bloomberg.net
