China and Brazil called for developed nations to detail plans on boosting aid for climate projects to US$100 billion by 2020, a measure they say is essential for United Nations climate talks to succeed.
Su Wei, China’s lead negotiator at the 190-nation talks, backed an identical request by representatives of the Least Developed Countries, a bloc of 48 nations, at the UN conference that began on Monday in Doha, Qatar. Brazil’s ambassador said he has the same position and both said they’re concerned funding may dry up next year at the end of a three-year period that aimed to deliver US$30 billion of so-called fast-start financing.
“We urge developed countries’ parties to meet the goal of US$100 billion by 2020 as committed,” Su said. “A roadmap to scaling up the finance is absolutely necessary.”
Climate finance is one of the linchpins of the UN talks because developing nations argue that global warming is caused by the historical emissions of industrialised nations, which now have the responsibility of helping others defend against rising seas and more violent weather.
Aside from developing country concerns over whether aid pledges will be met, there was evidence of discord in one of the three main strands of negotiations when the US and Mexico rejected using as a basis for discussion a text compiled by Aysar Tayeb, the Saudi diplomat chairing the talks.
The call for a finance roadmap has echoes of last year’s talks in negotiations in Durban, South Africa, where the LDC bloc joined with the 27-nation European Union and the AOSIS group of island nations to successfully push for a roadmap setting out a new climate treaty by 2015 that will enter force in 2020.
Doubt already surrounds whether the fast-start finance was delivered in full and whether it was “new and additional” aid as promised by the industrial nations in 2009. The International Institute for Environment and Development said this week that just US$23.6 billion had been paid out as of May. Estimates by HSBC Holdings and the World Resources Institute said the US$30 billion target had been exceeded, though the WRI said transparency surrounding the data is lacking.