The US$10B pledged in Copenhagen to assist countries vulnerable to climate change has not yet been realised, President Bharrat Jagdeo says.
He told reporters at a press briefing two Fridays ago that “very little work” has been done at the global level to secure the money and find a mechanism for its disbursement. The money needs to come from the people who pledged it into a fund, and then a mechanism needs to be found for its disbursement, Jagdeo said. He added that the mechanism has to say who is eligible. He said up to now, no agreement has been reached at the global level regarding those eligible, what projects will be funded, how much money countries are going to get, and so on.
This is disturbing and unless this issue is solved quickly, many developing countries are going to be very sceptical that “it’s all just talk again,” with little flow of resources, the President pointed out. Unless this is done, when countries meet in Mexico later this year seeking a binding agreement, this “bad track record” could provoke serious disagreements, Jagdeo said.
The President, who is part of the United Nations General Secretary’s panel to advise on climate finance, was in London to meet finance ministers and financiers. “We’re going to have to deal with this issue about how we raise $100B per annum by 2020 for climate related purposes,” said Jagdeo.
He added they cannot talk about 2020 as “static… we’d have to show how we ramp up from the $10B now to $100B by that time so I hope to push this further there.”
Jagdeo pointed out that the World Bank had done several studies showing that this is the most vulnerable region in the world based on the number of countries in CARICOM that rank highly on the vulnerability index to natural disasters.
He said the Copenhagen Accord mentions that the money must go to the most vulnerable, so, based on World Bank’s criteria, the region is among the most vulnerable and should be the first to receive some of these resources.
He said the region can get as much as US$500M per annum or even more “if we are ready with projects.” Jagdeo said that in the interim, disbursing climate funds can be done through existing financial institutions such as the World Bank and they have asked that flexible instruments be devised that allow quick disbursement of these resources without compromising on accountability of these resources. “This is critical to success and a binding agreement in Mexico,” he said.
