SA wants clarity on climate fund
2008-03-15 18:41
Makuhari - South Africa called on rich nations on Saturday to spell out whether cash for a climate change technology fund was new money, and said it was unhelpful of them to label big developing countries "major emitters".
Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk, speaking on
the sidelines of a meeting of G20 energy and environment
ministers near Tokyo, also called for greater clarity on the
management of World Bank-administered climate funds.
"We don't have time to enter into these long and useless
debates," van Schalkwyk told Reuters, referring to a heated
debate in the talks over the "major emitters" tag.
"What we must do is to respect the decisions that we took in
Bali: one category for developed countries, targets, reduction
of emissions by comparable effort."
"And for developing countries measurable, reportable and
verifiable actions, and we are committed to this."
UN-led talks in December launched two years of
negotiations on a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol, of which
the G20 talks and G8 meetings this year and next are part.
"To start confusing what we have already agreed and to
dilute it, it's not helpful at all. This term is slang," he said.
"From the developing world, we regard this an attempt to
create a new category on top of the two categories that we
already have, Annex 1 and non-Annex 1," van Schalkwyk said,
referring to two Kyoto Protocol categories.
"It is unhelpful because it is difficult to define such a
category," he said. "Many of the developing countries,
especially China and India, are saying that if you look at per
capita emissions, we aren't a major emitter."
Funds
Van Schalkwyk also said developing nations must have greater
involvement in the management of clean technology funds.
The United States, Britain and Japan have urged other
nations to join their efforts to launch a multibillion-dollar
fund to help developing countries switch to clean energy
technologies.
Van Schalkwyk said it was only in the past few weeks that
developing nations had even been consulted on the fund, to be
administered by the World Bank.
It was also unclear if money going into the fund was new, or
was cash already set aside as development aid, he said.
Bush has pledged $2bn to the fund over the next three
years, Britain has pledged part of its $1.6bn Environmental Transformation Fund and Japan has announced the creation of a $10bn financial mechanism to support developing countries.