Poor nations say rich fail on climate aid pledge

OSLO, (Reuters) – Poor nations accused donors yesterday of failing to keep a promise of extra climate aid,  which the U.N. says will be the “golden key” to successful  global warming talks in Mexico this month.

“The promises (of aid) are there, and they keep coming, but  we don’t see anything on the ground,” said Bruno Sekoli of  Lesotho, who will chair the group of least developed countries  (LDCs) at the United Nations’ negotiations in Mexico from Nov.  29 to Dec. 10.
“For us, the LDCs, we want action,” Sekoli told Reuters of  promises of billions of dollars of extra aid for 2010. Up to 194  nations, of which about 50 are LDCs, will meet in the Mexican  resort of Cancun to seek ways to slow climate change.

By contrast, developed countries say that cash is starting  to flow under a pledge made at the U.N. climate change summit in  Copenhagen in December 2009 to provide funds approaching $30  billion of “new and additional” aid between 2010 and 2012.

A draft European Union report, for instance, said that EU  members were keeping a promise to deliver 2.2 billion euros ($3  billion) in 2010 to help poor nations cut greenhouse gas  emissions and adapt to impacts of climate change.

It said projects include a German grant of 300,000 euros to  help Mozambique build a flood warning system and a 400,000 euro  grant from the Czech Republic to help Ethiopia revitalise wells,  improve water supplies and halt erosion.

U.N. climate chief Christiana Figueres says flows are a  “golden key” to Cancun, where nations hope to agree a package of  measures including a green fund to manage long-term aid, deals  on sharing clean technology and protecting tropical forests.

The different perceptions of aid flows between rich and poor  nations are likely to be a hurdle to negotiations among  environment ministers in Cancun. No nations expect a treaty to  be agreed after world leaders fell short in Copenhagen.

Poor nations suspect that rich nations, facing budget cuts  at home, are simply relabelling many old projects as new.
“It is clear there is more funding flowing,” said Jennifer  Morgan, director of the climate and energy programme at the  World Resources Institute in Washington. “But how much of it is  new and additional is an open question.”

Developing nations have long said aid is “new and  additional” only if it is above a goal, set in the 1970s, for  developed nations to give 0.7 percent of their annual gross  domestic income as aid. Most donors have never reached the goal.

Even so, Sekoli said that getting cash flowing was more  important than wrangling about percentages. “We should not spend  time arguing on the level … I am so desperate to see the flow  of funds,” he said.

The poorest nations, largely in Africa, have done least to  cause global warming but are among the most vulnerable to  droughts, floods, desertification, heatwaves and rising sea  levels.

Many developed nations have not clearly defined what they  mean by new and additional. Under the Copenhagen Accord, aid is  due to rise to $100 billion a year from 2020.