Poor nations need $1-2bn now for climate fight: report

Poor nations need funding now to cope with climate change, said a new report submitted to the UN.

“As a first step, donors are urged to immediately mobilise $1-2 billion to assist vulnerable, low-income countries that already suffer from climate change impacts,” concluded a report by the International Commission on Climate Change and Development.

The commission presented its final report to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York on Thursday.

Gunilla Carlsson, Sweden’s minister for international development cooperation and chair of the commission, said in a statement that fighting climate change and poverty were “inseparable and have to be addressed together”.

The report comes as world climate negotiators are trying to reach a new international agreement on climate change, which is meant to be cemented at an annual UN summit in Copenhagen in December.

A key element of the agreement is how rich nations will assist the most vulnerable countries in coping with the immediate effects of climate change, such as rising sea levels and severe drought.

Funding

The commission said the immediate mobilisation of adaptation money must be in addition to official development assistance.

It also urged countries to agree on a “flexible” funding mechanism “with democratic and efficient governance”.

“At the national level, countries must be able to receive and allocate funds from multiple sources with a minimum of transaction costs. And local government and organisations must have access to the resources they need,” it said.

“While more work is required to better estimate adaptation needs, there are promising options proposed to raise funds,” the report said, adding that some could bring between $5-15 billion of additional funding a year – which is in the lower range of estimated needs.

Last month, a group of African nations said that by 2020 developing countries would need $67 billion per year in funding for adaptation measures.

The commission, set up by the Swedish government, is a group of 13 international climate change and development experts.