Britain makes climate pledge
2012-12-05 10:21
Doha - Britain on Tuesday became the first
country at UN climate talks in Doha to pledge money to help poor countries deal
with global warming as negotiators battled to thrash out a funding deal.
The secretary of state for energy, Ed Davey,
said London would spend about $2.9 billion from an international climate fund
over the next three years, which meant "our climate finance will be 50%
higher in 2014/15 than it was in 2010/2011".
"That is a really big commitment to...
public finance going ahead and I hope other countries will match that long-term
commitment," he told reporters.
Poor countries at the Doha talks want
developed nations to show how they intend keeping a promise to raise funding
for poor nations' climate mitigation to $100 billion per year by 2020 - up from
a total $30 billion in 2010-2012.
The developing world says it needs a total of
$60 billion from now to 2015 to cope with worsening drought, flood, storms and
rising seas.
The British move was welcomed by NGOs and
European climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard who tweeted: "UK first EU
member state who pledges post-2012 climate finance: €2.2bn."
The European Union itself has not made a
pledge, but Hedegaard has hinted that individual member states will make
announcements in Doha.
It was not clear if the British pledge was
additional to an existing 2.9 billion pounds earmarked for climate aid between
2011 and 2015.
"While the details remain hazy and need
to be clarified this week, Oxfam is pleased that the UK has stated in Doha that
they will be increasing their climate finance next year," the NGO said.
Christian Aid, which speaks for some of the
world's poorest communities, welcomed the announcement and called on other
developed countries to follow suit.
