Green Climate Fund gets richer after G20 pledges; Australia refuses to contribute

Contributions are believed to be a vital step towards reaching global climate agreement in Paris

 
By Vani Manocha
Published: Tuesday 18 November 2014

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With contributions from Japan, Germany, France and the US at the G20 summit in Australia, the United Nation’s Green Climate Fund has risen to US $7.5 billion. This is much within informal target of US $ 10 billion for this month. The fund will be committed to helping poor nations cope with global warming.

Ahead of UN climate talks in Paris next year, the pledges for fund are being seen as a vital contribution from nations. While the United States has promised US $ 3 billion, Japan has pledged US $ 1.5 billion and Germany and France announced US $1 billion each. Meanwhile, Australia has refused to commit to the fund. “Australia is already spending US $2.5 billion on its domestic Direct Action fund and providing $10 billion in capital to a so-called green bank…” says a Guardian report. It has also been reported that US President Barack Obama and the UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon had both urged G20 countries to contribute to the Green Climate Fund.

The fund is a part of a plan that was agreed to in 2009 to raise finances to help developing nations tackle climate change.

What is Green Climate Fund?

The fund was designed at 16th Conference of Parties to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) or COP 16 (held in Cancun), to promote the paradigm shift towards low-emission and climate-resilient development pathways by providing support to developing countries to limit or reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to the impacts of climate change.
   
Under the (UNFCCC), developed country heads of state formally committed to jointly mobilise US $ 100 billion per year by 2020 to advance the global paradigm shift towards low-emission and climate-resilient development pathways. It has also been decided that developing and industrialised countries alike would pay into the fund.


Pro-poor climate finance: is there a role for private finance in the Green Climate Fund?

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